Microwave enhanced synthesis of chitosan-graft-polyacrylamide

Chitosan-graft-polyacrylamide (Ch-g-PAM) was synthesized without any radical initiator or catalyst using microwave (MW) irradiation. Under optimal grafting conditions, 169% grafting was observed at 80% MW power in 1.16 min. Conventionally under similar conditions a maximum grafting of 82% could be achieved in 1 h using K2S2O8/ascorbic acid as redox initiator coupled with Ag+ ions as catalyst and atmospheric oxygen as co-catalyst on a thermostatic water bath at 35±0.2 °C. The representative microwave synthesized graft copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, thermo gravimetric analysis and X-ray diffraction measurement, taking chitosan as a reference. The effects of reaction variables as monomer/chitosan concentration, MW power and exposure time on the graft co-polymerization were studied. A probable free radical mechanism for grafting under microwaves has been proposed. The solubility pH for the grafted samples with different extent of grafting was monitored. The adsorption capacity of chitosan was much enhanced after grafting. The microwave synthesized Ch-g-PAM in comparison to that prepared conventionally was found to have much more adsorption ability for Ca2+ and Zn2+ ions in aqueous solution.