Synthesis of an Eco-friendly Bamboo Cellulose-graftedployacrylamide Flocculant and Its Flocculation Performance on Papermaking Wastewater

Flocculation is the first and important step to remove suspended and slightly soluble pollutants in industrialwastewater treatment. Flocculant is just the key element for flocculation process. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is the most widelyused flocculant. But it still holds some potential flaws which are ignored by people. An eco-friendly bamboo cellulosegrafted-ployacrylamide flocculant (BC-g-PAM) was then synthesized by free-radical graft copolymerization in homogeneousaqueous solution. The optimal synthesis conditions of the BC-g-PAM was investigated. FTIR, TG, XRD and FESEM wereemployed to characterize and define its molecular structure and physical characteristics. The BC-g-PAM was also adopted totreat an actual papermaking wastewater. The positive results showed that the BC-g-PAM exhibited an excellent flocculationperformance on the papermaking wastewater. The average turbidity removal rate reached 99.7 % and related suspendedsolids exhibited the corresponding decline. This flocculation also caused a positive effect on the reduction of CODCr andBOD5 of the wastewater. Meanwhile, the BC-g-PAM exhibited an excellent biodegradability. Its degradation rate reached63.4 % at 90 d in soil extracting solution. KCI Citation Count: 0