Facile preparation of fibrous glycidol-containing adsorbent for boron removal from solutions by radiation-induced grafting of poly(vinylamine) and functionalisation

Abstract In this study, a facile method was developed to prepare fibrous boron-selective adsorbent through introduction of poly(vinylamine) (PVAm) onto polyethylene/polypropylene (PE/PP) non-woven sheet by radiation induced graft copolymerization (RIGC) of N-vinylformamide (NVF) followed by hydrolysis, and glycidol immobilisation. The dependence of the degree of grafting (DG) on the reaction parameters (absorbed dose, monomer concentration, temperature, and reaction time) was investigated to control the content of hydrolysed poly(N-vinylformamide) (PNVF) grafts. The properties of the adsorbent were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and thermal gravimetric analyser (TGA). The boron adsorption from solution on the prepared adsorbent was investigated under various pHs, contact times, initial boron concentrations, adsorbent dosages, and adsorption/desorption cycles. The adsorbent with a DG of 120% showed an adsorption capacity of 21.4 mg-B/g-adsorbent at pH 7 with an appealing stability. The overall properties and adsorption behaviour suggest that RIGC is highly effective method for preparation of glycidol-containing fibrous adsorbent with highly attractive properties for boron removal from aqueous solutions.