Preparation of graft phosphoric adsorbent onto nonwoven cotton fabric in pilot scale

Seko, Noriaki; Kasai, Noboru; Hoshina, Hiroyuki; Shibata, Takuya*  ; Takahashi, Makikatsu*

The majority of metal adsorbents are composed of spherical resins that are prepared by the co-polymerization of styrene and divinylbenzene. In general, synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and polypropylene have been used as trunk polymer fibers due to their reactivity in the grafting process and high mechanical strength. In the case of fibrous adsorbents, these superior characteristics depend on the high diffusion rate of metal ions in the fibrous adsorbent, in which the fiber diameters of 10-20 m are ten times smaller than those of the spherical resin adsorbents. In this study, a fibrous adsorbent for metal ions was synthesized by radiation-induced emulsion graft polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate phosphoric acid monomer (PA) which composed of phosphoric acid mono (50%) and di (50%) ethyl methacrylate ester onto nonwoven cotton fabric. The resulting PA-type adsorbents were achieved around 150% of degree of grafting.