Biodegradable flocculants based on polyacrylamide and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) grafted amylopectin.

Synthesis of amylopectin grafted polyacrylamide (AP-g-PAM) and poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (AP-g-PDMA) was carried out by Ce4+ in water medium. The reaction conditions for maximum grafting was optimized by varying the reaction variables, including the concentration of monomers, ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN), amylopectin, reaction time and temperature. The graft copolymers were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, NMR (both 1H and 13C) spectroscopy, molecular weight determination and molecular weight distribution by using size exclusion chromatography (SEC), thermal analysis (TGA), SEM studies. Biodegradation of the graft copolymers was carried out by enzyme hydrolysis. Flocculation performances of the graft copolymers were evaluated in 1.0 wt% coal and 1.0 wt% silica suspensions. A comparative study of the flocculation performances of AP-g-PDMA and AP-g-PAM was also made. It shows that the flocculation performance of AP-g-PDMA was better than that of AP-g-PAM. AP-g-PDMA performed best when compared with other commercial flocculants in the same suspensions.