Facile polyacrylamide graft based on poly (2-chloroaniline) silver nano-composites as antimicrobial

Synthesis and characterization of poly (styrene-co-acrylamide)-graft-polyanilines as new sorbents for mercuric present in aqueous hydrocarbon liquids

Background

The unprocessing hydrocarbon oil often contains high concentrations of mercury, which damages the metallic processing components and have health risk on workers and environment. Mercuric removal unit associated with natural gas processing plant is failed to complete mercury removal and then mercury distributed in most places of removal unit. Most of unremoved mercury are found in polar solutions.

Results

Styrene-co-acrylamide-graft-polyanilines were synthesized and characterized. The copolymer formed by free radical emulsion copolymerization of styrene-acrylamide (14:1) using ammonium persulphate (APS) at 60 °C. In addition, the grafting process was also achieved by oxidation chemical polymerization of the above copolymer with both aniline and 2-chloroaniline using APS. The synthetic polymeric samples were characterized using infrared (IR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), scan electron microscope (SEM), transition electron microscope (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) to confirm the polymerization process and investigate the polymeric samples as new sorbents for Hg (II). Both adsorption kinetics and isotherm models were checked.

Conclusions

In most cases Hg (II) was adsorbed as multi-layer on the obtained mesopores materials. The grafting process enhances the copolymer activity towards Hg (II) removal. The complete removal of mercury from water solution portion of mercuric removal unit was achieved by introduction of synthetic polymeric mesopores material based on styrene-co-acrylamide-graft-polyanilines. The removal efficiency closed to 100% in case of grafting with poly (2-chloroaniline).

Anew Synthetic Polymers Based on Polyaniline for Dual-Functional Applications: Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting and Antibacterial Activities

Polysulfanilic acid has a low efficiency for the photoelectrochemical (PEC) production of H₂ from water splitting due to high recombination rate of charge and low electrical conductivity. Therefore, polyaniline was doped with polysulfanilic acid to form a copolymer and a blend to enhance its PEC heterogeneous catalytic performance. This was achieved through the improvement of visible light absorption and charge carriers' separation property. Herein, nine polymer samples of polysulfanilic acid were synthesized by oxidative polymerization. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the synthesized polymeric materials were investigated. Interestingly, these polymer samples had multifunctional applications regarding their hydrogen generation efficiency. Photoelectrodes of different compositions from pure and blended polymers were prepared and used for the PEC solar hydrogen production from water. Different PEC parameters including the oxidant role, monochromatic illumination wavelength, and electrode reusability were optimized toward the efficient hydrogen generation. Moreover, the PEC performance was evaluated using key indicators such as photocurrent density, conversion efficiency, and the number of hydrogen moles. The number of hydrogen moles was quantitatively estimated to be 140.4, 160.2, and 300 μmol/h·g at -1 V for the polymer, copolymer, and polymer blend, respectively, in the presence of APS + FeCl₃ as an oxidant. Further, other samples of polymers showed antimicrobial properties against different species of bacteria. Hence, the present study may provide a cost-effective method to produce solar hydrogen fuel from water.