title: Novel thermoresponsive assemblies of co-grafted natural and synthetic polymers for water purification.
abstract: Water contamination and its purification are a global problem. The current approach to purify water is reduction of impurities to acceptable levels. One of the ways to achieve this is by use of water-soluble polymers that extract organic and metallic contaminants, from water. This paper presents a blend of composite polymers that eliminates both the contaminants simultaneously by the principle of adsorption at lower critical solution temperature. These composite polymers have been synthesized by grafting poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide), poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) on-to the natural polymer chitosan or its derivatives, giving smart graft polymeric assemblies (GPAs). One of the graft polymers, GPA-2, exhibits excellent adsorption properties able to remove metal ions like cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, iron and also organic impurities like chlorophenol and phthalic anhydride. Studies reveal that 6 mg/ml GPA-2 is able to effect a 100% removal of organic impurities - chlorophenol (50 ppm) and phthalic anhydride (70 ppm) - from water, while complete removal of the heavy metal ions (Cu+2, Co+2and Cd+2) together at 30 ppm concentration has been achieved with 7.5 mg/ml GPA-2. The reduction in level of impurities along with recyclability and reproducibility in the elimination spectrum makes these assemblies promising materials in water treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai 400 098, India E-mail: premlata.ambre@bcp.edu.in.
authors.forename: Joginder Singh
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Paneysar
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, Kingston University-London, Kingston upon Thames, London KT1 2EE, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Sciences, School of Science, NMIMS University, Vile Parle (West), Mumbai 400056, India.
authors.forename: Sudeshna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chandra
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai 400 098, India E-mail: premlata.ambre@bcp.edu.in.
authors.forename: Premlata
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ambre
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Bombay College of Pharmacy, Mumbai 400 098, India E-mail: premlata.ambre@bcp.edu.in.
authors.forename: Evans
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coutinho
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry; D002850:Chromatography, Gel; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D066244:Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D059027:Recycling; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012212:Rheology; D012996:Solutions; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D055672:Static Electricity; D013696:Temperature; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D011108:Polymers; D012996:Solutions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D048271:Chitosan