pH tempted Micellization of β-Cyclodextrin based Diblock copolymer and its application in solid/liquid separation

This work focuses on facile synthesis of pH responsive diblock copolymers based on acrylamide (AM) and 2-Acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) grafted on beta-Cyclodextrin and have application in solid/liquid separation. beta-CD based chain transfer agent (CTA) has been synthesized by one pot synthesis method. Three different grades of beta-Cyclodextrin based Macro CTA were synthesized through RAFT polymerization technique. Macro CTA have been used further in synthesis of five different grades of beta-CD grafted pH-responsive diblock copolymers i.e. (beta-CD-PRP's) by varying the amount of AMPS. The polymeric materials were characterized by Fluorescence Spectroscopy, FT-IR, GPC, H-1-NMR, SEM, TEM, TGA, and XRD. beta-CD-PRP's shows their micellization properties at acidic pH < 6.57 with polymer conc. > 0.336 mg/mL and has also been studied for removal of model contaminant (kaolin). Among all grades of diblock copolymers, grade 3 shows best performance in the removal of kaolin from aqueous solution at 7 and 5 pH values. Graphical abstract