Exploring the Adsorption Performance of Gum Xanthan/Poly (Acrylic Acid-co-2-(Diethlyamino)ethyl Methacrylate) based Adsorbent Toward Cationic and Anionic Dyes

Abstract

This article describes our experimental study in which a series of semi-interpenetrating polymer networks (semi-IPNs: S-IPN1, S-IPN2, and S-IPN3), based on acrylic acid (AA), 2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA), and gum xanthan (GX), were used to remove the dyes methylene blue (MB) and Congo red (CR) from synthetic aqueous solutions. The formation of the semi-IPN hydrogel was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In the swelling experiments, the hydrogels showed pH-sensitive behavior and swelled the most and least under acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. The MB and CR uptakes were studied using the batch technique, and the effects of various conditions were investigated. According to the data, 0.1 g of the S-IPN3 hydrogel with the highest content of GX had maximum removal efficiencies of 79.33% and 80.47% for the dyes MB and CR, respectively. Freundlich isotherm and a pseudo-second order kinetic model best explained the equilibrium and kinetic adsorption of the dyes, respectively. The prepared semi-IPN gels also showed high regeneration performance for the cationic dye MB during four consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles.