Synthesis of Hydrogel Nanocomposites of Acrylamide-Itaconic Acid Using Laponite and Study of Crystal Violet Dye Adsorption

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

The clay crosslinked hydrogel nanocomposites were synthesized by graft copolymerization of acrylamide and itaconic acid in the presence of different amounts of laponite using ammonium persulfate and N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylene diamine  )TEMED) as a free radical initiator and catalyst, respectively. The XRD patterns of nanocomposites showed that the clay layers are completely exfoliated and uniformly dispersed in polymeric matrix. The effect of laponite content on the equilibrium swelling and cationic dye uptake of crystal violet was investigated. It is observed that with increasing clay content in hydrogel composition, the water absorbency is increased. In the dye absorption studies, it was found  that amount of dye uptake and  removal effciency  increased with  increasing laponite content. Also, the synthesized samples adsorb higher amount of crystal violet in higher concentrations of dye. Therefore, these nanocomposites could be used for removal of crystal violet dye from wastewater.

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