Selective Adsorption and Separation of Organic Dyes by Poly(acrylic acid) Hydrogels Formed with Spherical Polymer Brushes and Chitosan

Abstract

Direct discharge of industry organic dyes has caused serious environmental pollution. In this study, a series of double network poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hydrogels were fabricated with spherical polymer brushes (SPBs) and chitosan (CS) as crosslinker. Neutral spherical polyelectrolyte brushes of polystyrene–poly-N-isopropylacrylamide (PNIPAM@PS) in which poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) arms were grafted on polystyrene (PS) nanospheres, were employed as macro-crosslinkers. The innumerable hydrogen bonds both between the highly entangled PAA chains and between PNIPAM and the PAA chains composed the first network of the hydrogels. The electrostatic interactions between CS and the PAA chains formed the second network of the hydrogels. These double network hydrogels, named PNIPAM@PS/CS/PAA, achieve good compressive performance and a low swell ratio because of their compact structure through plentiful hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions. The hydrogel could absorb cationic dyes from water with high separation efficiency and selectivity due to the electrostatic interaction between the carboxy groups and dye molecules. The adsorption process fitted a pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model very well. Moreover, the hydrogel can separate cationic dyes from mixed dye solutions through electrostatic interactions. After being loaded with silver nanoparticles, the obtained silver@hydrogel exhibited a good capacity for the photocatalytic degradation towards different dyes. The hydrogels are promising for dye-containing wastewater treatment.