Flocculant Based on Acrylamide and Acrylic Acid Grafted on Sodium Alginate by Electron Beam Irradiation

The paper presents the obtaining, characterization and testing of a new type of polyelectrolyte based on acrylamide (2.63 mol/L), acrylic acid (1.73 mol/L) and sodium alginate (4.63x10-3 and 9.26x10-3 mol/L), for flocculation purposes. Two types of monomeric solutions were irradiated in electron beam at room temperature and in atmospheric conditions with doses between 0.5 and 2 kGy using ALID 7 linear electron accelerator of 5.5 MeV. The potassium persulfate (9.25x10-4 mol/L) was used as reaction initiator in both types of solutions. The flocculants thus obtained were characterized using various physical and chemical methods in order to determine conversion coefficient, residual monomer content, intrinsic viscosity, grafting ratio and grafting efficiency. The flocculation efficiency was evaluated in 0.1 and 0.2 wt % blue kaolin suspension at room temperature using a standard Jar test apparatus.