Experimental study of the removal of copper ions using hydrogels of xanthan, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid, montmorillonite: Kinetic and equilibrium study.

In this paper, removal of copper ions from aqueous solution using novel xanthan gum (XG) hydrogel, xanthan gum-graft-2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (XG-g-P(AMPS)) hydrogel and xanthan gum-graft-2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid/montmorillonite (XG-g-P(AMPS)/MMT) hydrogel composite were studied. The structure and morphologies of the xanthan-based hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Adsorbents comprised a porous crosslink structure with side chains that carried carboxyl, hydroxyl and sulfonate.