Preparation of dithiocarbamate polymer brush grafted nanocomposites for rapid and enhanced capture of heavy metal ions

Abstract

High-density and narrow-distribution dithiocarbamate (DTC) functionalized polymer brush grafted SiO 2 nanocomposites (DTC-PGMA@SiO 2 ) were synthesized via surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) and subsequent DTC functionalization, which could serve as an efficient nanostructured adsorbent material. Systematic characterization was performed to identify the sea anemone like core-brush structure. More importantly, the DTC-PGMA@SiO 2 adsorbent exhibited remarkable performance in capturing heavy metal ions from water. The adsorption behaviour, including the effect of pH, adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherms, adsorption thermodynamics and adsorption mechanism, was investigated in detail. Interestingly, the adsorbent complexes show different color changes depending upon the species of adsorbed ions, indicating that the DTC-PGMA@SiO 2 can be potentially used as a sensor for metallic contaminants in water bodies. The regeneration experiments showed that the adsorbent is both cost-effective and sustainable. The high-capacity and rapid adsorption of metallic ions, which are due to the well-defined core-brush structure, large specific surface area and strong binding ability of DTC groups, make this adsorbent material promising in the capture of heavy metal ions from contaminated water. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: The synthesis method of sacricial initiator, bare SiO 2 and Br@SiO 2 nanoparticles, the 1 H NMR and FTIR spectra of sacricial initiator and PGMA (Fig. S1-S4); the kinetic plot of SI-ATRP (Fig. S5); the evolution of M n and PDI versus monomer conversion (Fig. S6); the tting plots of kinetic and isothermal data ( Fig. S7 and S8); the results of reuse experiments (Fig. S9); the elemental analysis results (Table S1), the tting parameters obtained by using D-R model (Table S2) and the thermodynamic parameters of adsorption process (Table S3). See

Tailoring the mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites via interfacial engineering

“…Various strategies have been suggested for the control of the spatial distribution of NPs, invoking their surface modification such as by adding surfactants (cationic, anionic or nonionic), [24][25][26] inorganic surface modification, 27,28 adsorbent modification, 29,30 and using grafted polymer chains. 29,31 The last method is rather popular, [32][33][34] and in this case, the grafted chains are similar to an amphiphilic material, promoting the compatibility of NPs with the polymer matrix. In this case, the interfacial interactions can be tuned by controlling the grafting density, the grafted chain length, the polymer matrix chain length and the diameter of NPs.…”

Synthesis of Water-Soluble Copolymers of N-vinylpyrrolidone with N-vinyldithiocarbamate as Multidentate Polymeric Chelation Systems and Their Complexes with Indium and Gallium

“…Introducing DTC groups into macromolecules is well developed in the cases when polymers demonstrate low solubility in water or do not dissolve in it at all. As a rule, these reactions proceed under heterophase conditions or in strong aprotic solvents (DMFA) [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…The described DTC-containing polymeric matrices are based on polystyrenes, polyacrylamides, carbon nanotubes, etc. [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. A wide range of DTC derivatives of carbohydrates (starch, chitosan) were prepared and investigated for this purpose [ 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

“…DTC and their complexes with metals find wide application in medicine for therapy of various diseases (for instance, [ 29 , 30 ]). DTC derivatives of chitosan find application in medicine as carriers for low molecular weight biologically active compounds [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Synthetic Methodologies for Chelating Polymer Ligands: Recent Advances and Future Development

“…Graft polymerization is widely used for the targeted production of «tailored» polymers that play an important role in PMC chemistry. In particular, grafted nanocomposites based on dithiocarbamate polymer brushes have been used for accelerate and enhance the capture of heavy metal ions . Binary polymer brushes containing homopolymer and diblock copolymer brushes are an attractive class of environmentally sensitive nanostructured materials …”