Synthesis and characterization of MHa-g-poly(HEMA)PO42−2H+ cation exchanger-effective removal of methylene blue from waste water

Abstract

Poly(HEMA) chain grafted chemically modified Holarrhena antidysenterica fiber was converted into a cation-exchanger using phosphorylation and a p-doping technique. The cation-exchanger synthesized was found to remove about 94.6% methylene blue dye from aqueous solution. The graft copolymer and cation exchanger vis-a-vis the backbone were characterized using different techniques like FTIR, SEM, EDX and XRD. The samples were further evaluated for thermal behavior using TGA/DTA/DTG techniques. The synthesized cation-exchanger was found to possess high thermal stability.