Anionic/Cationic Membranes Obtained by a Radiation Grafting Method for Use in Waste Water Treatment

Investigations were carried out on different ionic membranes, which were prepared by radiation-induced graft copolymerization. Cationic (low density polyethylene (LPDE)-g-poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc)) and cationic/anionic (LDPE-g-P(AAc/4-vinyl pyridine (4VP)) membranes) were used to elucidate the possibility of their practical use. The metal uptake via their functional groups was determined by using atomic absorption and X-ray fluorescence. The amount of metal uptake by the prepared membranes increased significantly as the pH of the metal feed solution increased (pH ≤ 5·3) and the chelated metal ions were easily desorbed by treating the membrane with 0·1 M HCl for 2h at room temperature. The maximum uptake for a given metal was higher for the cationic/anionic membranes than for the cationic ones. The selectivity of the cationic/anionic membranes towards different metals was investigated using mixtures of two or three metals in the same feed solution. The membranes showed high selectivity towards Fe(III ) ions. Characterization of the graft copolymers containing metals was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). TGA results showed that the decomposition of the graft copolymer in the presence of chelated metal ion occurred at temperatures above 300°C. The XRD of LDPE-g-P(AAc/4VP) treated with Fe(III ) at various concentrations showed that the crystallinity decreased to a certain limiting value. The complexed copolymers could be recycled several times and showed high selectivity to the Fe(III ) ion in the presence of the other metal ions investigated. This may make such grafted membranes acceptable for practical use in waste water treatment. © 1997 SCI