The projected increase of industrial and agricultural pollution has exacerbated the quality of natural water resources. Hence, new technology has been implemented that could render faster, easy and effective removal of these natural organic matters and filter quality drinking water. Effective and modified ion exchange resins have been synthesized in our lab as a remedy to this problem, where the nearly unrivaled specific surface area (SSA) of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is harnessed to increase the availability of the active ion exchange sites. This way more active sites would be utilized. These resin functionalized SWCNTs are thinner and have higher adsorption capacity compared to other currently materials. We have developed a new green synthesis of resin functionalized SWCNTs using activator regenerated by electron transfer – atom transfer radical polymerization procedure in water. The properties of these anion exchange resin strands are characterized. Bi-molecular termination in the polymer will lead to inactive strands that cannot attach to the SWCNTs. Hence, the percent conversion, linear polymer length, polydispersity, percent composition, etc. are some critical factors that need to be addressed. The percent conversion of monomer to polymer was measured using proton nuclear magnetic resonance by comparing polymer to monomer peaks. From percent conversion, concentration and average polymer length were determined. Polymer length was also analyzed from fractionated ejection of polymer out of size exclusion chromatography into multi-angle light scattering technique, where in the latter, Zimm formalism is used to obtain molar mass and radius of gyration of the polymer. Dynamic light scattering and thermogravimetric analysis gave us information about polydispersity index and percent composition. These data and the analysis of these novel water purification materials will be presented.<br/>

Synthesis and characterization of functionalized SWCNTs: Application in water purification

254th National Meeting (2017)

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