Synthesis of a polyamine-modified starch flocculant and its application

A degradable flocculant was prepared by natural renewable products (starch) and a cationic polymer. A cationic polyamine polymer was prepared by reaction of bis(hexamethylene)triamine with epichlorohydrin. The influence of substrate ratio and molecular weight of cationic polymer on flocculation was investigated and the optimum molecular weight was about 4000. Polyamine-modified starch flocculant was prepared by etherification reaction of cationic polyamine polymer and corn starch. The influence of substitution degree (DS) of starch on flocculation was investigated and the maximum DS was 0.18. The structure of starch-modified flocculant was characterized by XRD and the results confirmed that the plasticized samples contained some crystalline structures that were not destroyed by the etherification reaction process and some newly formed V-type crystalline structures were mainly induced by processing. Flocculation performance was evaluated in simulated kaolin suspension and was compared with that of commercial cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) flocculants. The flocculation effects of polyamine-modified starch flocculants and commercial flocculants under different dosages and pH values were compared. The results showed that the starch-modified flocculant had the best effect and the cationic starch derivatives flocculation performance increased with increasing DS, and exhibited steady flocculation performance to kaolin suspension in the broad pH range from 4 to 10. The preparation method of starch-modified flocculant is simple in preparation process, low in production cost and pollution-free, and facilitates industrial production.