Removal of boron by boron-selective adsorbent prepared using radiation induced grafting technique

Abstract

Boron-selective adsorbent was synthesized by grafting the glycidyl methacrylate onto polyethylene (PE) non-woven fiber using electron beam ionizing radiation. Subsequently, the grafted PE with 180% degree of grafting was chemically modified using n-methyl-d-glucamine (NMDG). The density of NMDG of the synthesized adsorbent was 2.2 mmol/g. Batch mode adsorption’s test showed that pH ranging from 4 to 8 had highest adsorption capacity and the adsorption capacity of the grafted adsorbent was 14.5 mg-B/g-adsorbent. Column mode adsorption test showed a marginal reduction of total breakthrough capacity from 13.8 to 12.7 mg-B/g-adsorbent, for feeding speed of space velocity (SV) 15 and SV 400, respectively. This indicated that the synthesized adsorbent had exhibited high performances of boron adsorption and desorption process. High performances of the prepared adsorbent could contribute from few factors such as fine size of the adsorbent, large surface area, and homogeneous pore size. Desorption of boron using 1 M HCl was completed at bed volume of 10. It showed that, the effect of feeding flow between SV 15 and SV 400 to the desorption process was negligible. Thus, the prepared adsorbent could be operated in high feeding speed and pressure. This would significantly improve the cost of the treatment.

Keywords:

• Adsorption
• Boron
• Desorption
• Glucamine
• Radiation graft polymerization

Acknowledgments

The first author would like to express gratitude to all of the staffs at Environmental Polymer Group for the assistance and supports given throughout the study. The first author also appreciates partial financial contribution from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), Malaysia.