The Evaluation of metal adsorbent based on polyethylene terephthalate fiber synthesized by radiation-induced grafting method

Saiki, Seiichi; Seko, Noriaki; Oida, Takashi*; Yamagishi, Kozo*

For more practical use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste materials, they should be modified and functionalized in spite of its poor reactivity derived from chemical stability. In this study, we adopted radiation-induced grafting method as a powerful modification tool for functionalization of PET fiber, and tried to synthesize amine type metal adsorbents for newly effective reuse of waste PET materials. At radiation-grafting experiments, glycidyl methacrylate was grafted on PET fiber irradiated with electron beam, and the degree of grafting reached to around 10%. The grafted samples were aminated in 50% ethylene diamine in 2-propanol solution at 40 or 60C for 15 or 60 minutes. At 60C and 60 minutes for amination process, the resultant samples lost 9% weight by alkali hydrolysis. For evaluating metal adsorption capacity, the aminated fiber put into 100 ppb vanadium aqueous solution and shaked over night, and then the vanadium concentration of the residual solution were evaluated by ICP-MS. The adsorption capacity of the aminated PET fiber showed around 0.9 g-V/kg-adsorbent except for 0.06 g-V/kg-adsorbent of the sample aminated at 40C and 15 minutes. As a result, amine type metal adsorbents based on PET materials were synthesized by radiation-induced grafting method taking into account for proper amination process.