Preparation of poly(acrylamide) grafted onto crosslinked poly (HEMA-MMA-EGDMA) beads for the removal of phenol

Poly(acrylamide) (PAAM) was grafted onto crosslinked poly(hydroxy ethyl methacrylate) (HEMA)-based beads for the removal of phenol from aqueous solution. A beaded polymer with a PAAM surface shell was prepared in two steps: synthesis of crosslinked poly (HEMA (50% mol) - MMA (40% mol) - EGDMA (10% mol)) terpolymers spherical beads (200–420 µm) (resin 1) via the suspension polymerization method; and the grafting of PAAM was carried out by redox initiation from hydroxyl groups on resin1 by using cerium (IV) ammonium nitrate as the initiator. The resulting polymeric sorbent (resin 2) with about 82 wt.% grafted PAAM has been demonstrated to be efficient to remove phenol from water. Moreover, phenol sorption capacities of resin 1 and resin 2 were compared and sorption experiments were performed depending on the initial phenol concentration and pH. Kinetic measurements and models were studied for resin 1 and resin 2.