Synthesis of Novel Poly[2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate]/Pumice Stone Hydrogel Composite for the Rapid Adsorption of Humic Acid in Aqueous Solution

Abstract

In this study, a novel hydrogel composite, poly[2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate]/pumice (PDMAEMA/Pmc) was designed and its sorption behavior for humic acid (HA) was produced by using batch adsorption techniques. FTIR results showed that pumice was well incorporated with the PDMAEMA matrix. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used in order to determine the morphology of composite hydrogel. In the batch experiments, the adsorption capacity was evaluated depending on different variables such as ionic strength; initial HA concentration; pH and adsorbent dosage. The adsorption capacity was found to be 86.27mg/g under the optimized conditions. The results revealed that HA adsorption onto PDMAEMA/Pmc was well expressed by the Freundlich isotherm model and the adsorption process was followed by the pseudo second order kinetic model. The reusability tests also indicated that novel PDMAEMA/Pmc adsorbent was an efficient and cost-effective adsorbent for removal of HA.