Possible Mechanisms for Interaction of Polyelectrolytes with Ions in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

Abstract The interaction between the active groups of water soluble polyelectrolytes such as polyacrylamide “neutral polymers pAM”, polysodium acrylate “anionic polymer pAANa”, poly acrylamide-diallyamine-hydrochloride) “cationic polymer pAM-DAA-HCl” and poly(acrylamide-diallylethylamine-hydrohcloride) “cationic polymer pAM-DAEA-HCl” with copper sulphate has been carried out under different experimental conditions. The spectroscopic studies show that the mechanism of the floc formation as a results of interaction between the polymer and copper sulphate is a bond formation between the active group of polymeric chains and copper sulphate. The bond formation depends on nature of the polymer chain. It was also found that the amide groups form complexes with hydrated cations, while both carboxylate-and ammonium groups interact by ion-exchange mechanism. The same studies were carried out on polyacrylamide-acrylic acid resin “pAM-AA” for the interaction between the resin and copper sulphate. The obtained show th...