Synthesis of Chitosan-acrylamide Graft Copolymer under Microwave Radiation and Its Flocculation Performance

Chitosan-acrylamide graft copolymers were synthesized under microwave radiation using ceric ammonium nitrate as initiator and acrylamide as monomer.The effects of reaction conditions on both grafting ratio and grafting efficiency were investigated through orthogonal experiments,the optimum conditions were determined as follows: reaction time 12 min,initiator concentration 5 mmol/L,ratio of monomer to chitosan 5∶1,and reaction temperature 40 ℃.Under the optimum conditions the grafting ratio and grafting efficiency reached 148.6 % and 44.0 %,respectively.The flocculation performances of chitosan-acrylamide copolymers to kaolin suspensions were compared with polyacrylamide(PAM) and it was found that chitosan-acrylamide copolymers are similar to PAM under acidic conditions and are better than PAM under neutral or basic conditions.