Cationic polystyrene spheres for removal of anionic contaminants in white water of papermaking

In a paper mill's water circuit, normal runnability of the paper machine is often disturbed due to the buildup of dissolved and colloidal substances (DCS). Contaminant adsorption on a solid adsorbent in a fluidized bed reactor has been applied for white water treatment. In the present study, polystyrene (PS) spheres were firstly acylated by acryloyl chloride, then poly(methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride) (PMAC) was grafted onto the acylated PS spheres, induced by surface‐initiated free‐radical polymerization. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the changes of PS spheres in chemical structures and surface morphology. The results showed that acylated PS spheres could be easily grafted with PMAC in 53.83% weight increase. Polyelectrolyte loading of PS spheres reached up to 1.72 mmol/g. The resulted cationic modified PS spheres could effectively decrease the cationic demand in white water and it still maintained high performance after operating repeatedly for 10 batches. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 10.1002/app.41379.