Microwave initiated synthesis of polyacrylamide grafted Casein (CAS-g-PAM)–Its application as a flocculant

Modification of the milk protein ‘casein’ has been carried out through microwave initiated graft copolymerization of acrylamide. The synthesis was optimized in terms of microwave irradiation time and monomer (acrylamide) concentration. The synthesized graft copolymers have been characterized by intrinsic viscosity measurement, elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and number average molecular weight determination through osmometry; taking the starting material (casein) as reference. Further, flocculation efficacy of various grades of the grafted product were studied and compared to that of the starting material ‘casein’ by Jar test and settling test procedure, in 1% coal-fine suspension.