Evaluation a self-assembled anionic polyacrylamide flocculant for the treatment of hematite wastewater: Role of microblock structure

Abstract

Abstract Self-assembly is able to control molecular structure of flocculants and improves their flocculation efficiency. In this study, template polymerization and ultrasonic initiation system attributed to the self-assembly of anionic polyacrylamide (TPAS-U) with a microblock structure using acrylamide (AM) and sodium p-styrene sulfonate (SSS) as monomers and poly (allylammonium chloride) (PAAC) as template. The functional groups and ordered microblock structure in TPAS-U were discovered via characterization analysis. Association constant (KM) manifested the self-assembly mechanism. And the role of ultrasonic in the synthesis was discussed as well. TPAS-U with well-organized/special structure had excellent flocculation performance in the treatment of hematite wastewater over other anionic flocculants. The flocs formed by TPAS-U possessed the big size, the compact structure and the strong recover ability after breakage. The uniform and regular microblock structure in TPAS-U attributed to the high utilization efficiency of negative charges, which improved neutralization, adsorption and bridging in the treatment.