Razieh Sahraei: Novel magnetic poly(vinyl alcohol)/modified gum tragacanth/graphene oxide hydrogel beads with daul activity for removal of cationic and anionic dyes from water

posted 9 Aug 2017, 04:33 by Peter Boggild
Razieh Sahraei, Mousa Ghaemy
Polymer Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

The objective of this work is the preparation of effective magnetic biosorbent beads with the high surface area from a low-value abundant biopolymer (Katira, GT) and graphene oxide (GO) for the removal of dyes from the water. For this aim, magnetic hydrogel beads based on poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(2-Acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid-co-1-vinyl imidazole)-g-gum tragacanth/graphene oxide were prepared by instantaneous gelation method in boric acid solution followed by cross-linking with glutaraldehyde (GA). The prepared magnetic beads with good mechanical stability (97.18%) were used as an effective adsorbent for removal of both cationic (crystal violet, CV) and anionic (congo red, CR) dyes from aqueous solution. The specific surface area and average pore diameter of magnetic beads (with a spherical shape and an average diameter of 3.0 mm) was 283.84 m2/g and 4.2767 ᵒA, respectively. The total pore volume was 0.0303 mL/g and the porosity based on a skeletal density of 0.5 g mL was 0.0149 per gram of sample.
The maximum adsorption capacities were found 94.0 and 101.74 mg g-1 for CV and CR, respectively. Therefore, advantages such as biocompatibility, easy preparation and separation, inexpensiveness, chemical stability, high adsorption, reusability, and having functional groups with dual activities make these magnetic beads attractive and broadly applicable in the removal of various pollutants simultaneously from water, wastewater, and for column applications [1-3].


1.Zhang Y, Liu Y, Wang X, Sun Z, Ma J, Wu T, Xing F, and Gao J, Carbohydr. Polym., 101, 392-400, 2014.
2.Jiang W, Wang W, Pan B, Zhang Q, Zhang W, and Lv L, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6(5), 3421-3426, 2014.
3.Pour Z.S, and Ghaemy M, RSC Adv., 5(79), 64106-64118, 2015.


I am Razieh Sahraei, PhD student of Polymer Chemistry at University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran. I received my MSc. degree in the field of applied-polymer chemistry from University of Tehran in 2013. My research is mainly focused at Synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite adsorbents based on gum tragacanth and graphene oxide for water treatment applications. I am at present pursuing the last year of my doctoral research as a visiting researcher in Malmö University, Department of Biomedical Science, Sweden.  I am interested in different concepts of waste water treatment, synthesis and characterization of functional polymers, synthesis of nanostructures, graphene-based materials, polymeric smart hydrogels, and polymeric nanofiltration membranes. 
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