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Flocculation Properties of Acrylamide‐Grafted Tamarind Polysaccharide on Microplastics and Heavy Metals Ions
Summary
Researchers created a modified polysaccharide derived from tamarind — a natural plant material — that acts as an effective flocculant, clumping together PVC microplastics and lead ions from water so they can be removed. Under optimized conditions, the material removed over 91% of PVC microplastics and over 93% of lead ions, with even better performance when both contaminants were present together. This bio-based flocculant offers a sustainable option for treating water contaminated with both microplastics and heavy metals simultaneously.
Abstract In this study, we developed a novel acrylamide (AM)‐grafted tamarind polysaccharide (TP) derivative (TP‐AM), which shows effective flocculation ability against microplastics and heavy metal in water. TP‐AM was successfully prepared by a microwave‐initiated method and characterized by using various methods. The flocculation performance of TP‐AM was evaluated by the flocculation of common microplastics and heavy metal, and the results disclosed that superior flocculation performances can be achieved on PVC and Pb 2+ . The different flocculation conditions on the flocculation were investigated for either the single component or the mixture of PVC/Pb 2+ . The results indicate that, in a solution of pH 6 at 30 °C, a maximum removal percentage of 91.22% was obtained for PVC by 80 mg L −1 of TP‐AM versus 93.45% for Pb 2+ by 5 g L −1 of TP‐AM, while for a mixture of PVC/Pb 2+ , the maximum removal percentages were improved to 91.89% and 95.14% with an optimized usage of 550 mg L TP‐AM. Zeta potential measurement and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy were applied to investigate the flocculation mechanism, which indicted that TP‐AM exerts an influence of adsorption electric neutralization besides bridging with PVC and a chelation with Pb 2+ . This work expects a promising application of TP‐AM as an effective flocculant in wastewater treatment.