Grafting of N-(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide on to κ-carrageenan: synthesis, characterization and applications.

The synthesis of graft copolymer [κ-carrageenan-g-N-(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide] is carried out in nitrogen atmosphere using potassium peroxymonosulphate (PMS) and glycolic acid (GA) as redox system. The effect of reaction variables including the concentration of N-(hydroxymethyl) acrylamide (4 × 10(-2) to 36 × 10(-2))mol dm(-3), PMS (4 × 10(-3) to 20 × 10(-3))mol dm(-3), GA (1.6 × 10(-3) to 4.8 × 10(-3)) mol dm(-3), sulphuric acid (4 × 10(-3) to 12 × 10(-3)) mol dm(-3), κ-carrageenan (0.6-1.8) g dm(-3) as well as time duration (60-180)min and temperature (25-45)°C has been studied. The physicochemical properties of graft copolymer synthesized have been performed in terms of water swelling, metal ion sorption and flocculation with respect to the κ-carrageenan as a parent polymer. The graft copolymer has been characterized by FTIR and thermogravimetic analysis.