Cationic hemicellulose-based hydrogels for arsenic and chromium removal from aqueous solutions

Daniel Dax, María Soledad Chávez, Chunlin Xu, Stefan Willför, Regis Teixeira Mendonça, Julio Sánchez

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    75 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In this work the synthesis of hemicellulose-based hydrogels and their application for the removal of arsenic and chromium ions is described. In a first step O-acetyl galactoglucomannan (GGM) was subjected to a transesterification applying glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) for the synthesis of novel GGM macromonomers. Two distinguished and purified GGM fractions with molar mass of 7.1 and 28 kDa were used as starting materials. The resulting GGM macromonomers (GGM-MA) contained well-defined amounts of methacrylate groups as determined by H-1 NMR spectroscopy. Selected GGM-MA derivatives were consecutively applied as a crosslinker in the synthesis of tailored hydrogels using [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride (MeDMA) as monomer. The swelling rate of the hydrogels was determined and the coherence between the swelling rate and the hydrogel composition was examined. The morphology of the GGM-based hydrogels was analysed by SEM and the hydrogels revealed a high surface area and were assessed in respect to their ability to remove arsenate and chromate ions from aqueous solutions. The presented bio-based hydrogels are of high interest especially for the mining industries as a sustainable material for the treatment of their highly contaminated wastewaters.
    Original languageUndefined/Unknown
    Pages (from-to)797–805
    Number of pages9
    JournalCarbohydrate Polymers
    Volume111
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Keywords

    • Crosslinking
    • Hemicellulose
    • Hydrogels
    • O-Acetyl galactoglucomannan
    • Polysaccharide
    • Wastewater treatment

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