Author(s)

Yanhua Pang, Yongsheng Ding, Jie Chen, Weimin Gong

Center of Food Inspection, Liaoning Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Dalian, China.
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China.
College of Ocean Environment and Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.

 A novel organic polymeric flocculant was synthesized by grafting cationic etherifying monomer (3-chloro-2-hydroxypropyl) trimethyl ammonium chloride (CHPTAC) onto the backbone of corncob powder (CP,F≤ 30mm). The synthetic reaction between CP and CHPTAC was initiated by hydroxyl radical made from Fenton reagent(H₂O₂-FeSO₄). The alkalization process andsynthetic reaction conditions were optimized byva- rying several parameters affecting grafting efficiency, such as NaOH dose, monomer concentration, reaction temperature and time and distilled water dose. The synthesized cationicflocculant was characterized by elemental analysis,Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer andscanning electron microscope techniques. Itwas concluded that the backbone of CP have been grafted cationic etherifying monomer. The flocculation characteristics in 0.25% (w/v) kaolin suspensions was compared with some of thecommercial flocculants available in markets,and the results demonstrated the synthesized cationic flocculation has superiority as a novel flocculant.

Flocculation; Corncob; Polymeric

Pang, Y. , Ding, Y. , Chen, J. and Gong, W. (2013) Synthesis and flocculation characteristics of cationic modified corncob: A novel polymeric flocculant. Agricultural Sciences, 4, 23-28. doi: 10.4236/as.2013.49B004.