Influencing Factors for Organic Spill Recovery Performance with a Novel Polypropylene-Methacrylate Sorbent

Insoluble organic matter released to the water body through accidental spillage imposes serious damage on the environment. Polypropylene (PP) fiber and methacrylate resin, however, end up in certain morphology or low sorption capacity after a single use. In this study, a novel sorbent was prepared by radiation-induced graft polymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA) onto PP fiber matrix to retain the advantages of both PP fibers and methacrylate resins to overcome the shortcomings of each used alone. The different parameters including irradiation power, irradiation time and monomer concentration that effect the grafting degree of grafted fiber were studied. The resulting grafted fibers (PP-g-BMA) were evaluated in this study in terms of sorption capacity, retention behaviors and reusability properties. The investigation revealed that the homopolymerization rate, organic matter temperature and pH values of organic-over-water aqueous solution are the most important factors in the sorption performance of polypropylene grafted fiber sorbent.