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Published on: April 9, 2016
Production of cationic xylan-METAC copolymer as a flocculant for textile industry
Shoujuan Wang1, Qingxi Hou2, Fangong Kong3
1Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300222, China; Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology of Education Ministry of China, Qilu University of Technology, Jinan 250353, China; Department of Chemical Engineering, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada P7B 5E1.
Abstract:
Xylan is a part of hemicelluloses of woody materials and can be converted to value-added products such as flocculants for the textile industry. To assess the production of flocculants from hemicelluloses of woody materials, xylan was selected as a model and rendered cationic via copolymerization. In this study, the copolymerization reaction of xylan and [2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] trimethylammonium chloride (METAC) was optimized. The optimum parameters were 3mol/mol METAC/xylose, 3h reaction time, 80°C reaction temperature, pH 7 and 25g/L xylan concentration. The copolymer was characterized by a charge density analyzer, viscometer, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), light scattering instrument, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and an elemental analyzer. The application of the cationic xylan copolymer as a flocculant to decolorize the simulated reactive orange 16 azo-dye wastewater was evaluated. The results confirmed that, by having 160mg/L xylan-METAC concentration in the dye solution with the concentration of 100mg/L, 97.8% of dye could be removed.
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