One-Pot Synthesis and Combined Use of Modified Cotton Adsorbent and Flocculant for Purifying Dyeing Wastewater

Abstract

A one-pot polymerization system using tetradecyl allyldimethylammonium chloride (TADMAC) and grafting cotton with unsaturated bonds (G-cotton) was designed to synthesize novel long-chain alkylation polycationic cotton (LP-cotton) and the homopolymer of TADMAC (PTADMAC). The LP-cotton had a high cationic degree of substitution of 0.108. The high monomer conversion of 98.8% suggests that almost all the TADMAC monomers participated in the polymerization. It is possible that when only LP-cotton was used as the adsorbent, its long-chain alkylation cationic TADMAC unit played the role of a similar surfactant in enhancing the association between the dye and cotton surface, resulting in a great improvement in adsorption capacity. The adsorption capacities were 57.5, 531.7, 4.4, and 2.9 times higher than those of the widely used activated carbon, untreated cotton, G-cotton, and polycationic film-coated cotton (PF-cotton), respectively, reported in our previous study. Using only PTADMAC as the flocculant led to a w...