Gamma radiation-induced preparation of poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate acrylamide acrylic acid) as exchanger

The polymeric material of poly(acrylamide-acrylic acid-dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate) "PAM-AA-DMAEM" was prepared by gamma radiation-induced polymerization of dimethylaminoethylmethacrylate (DMAEM) in the presence of prepared poly(acrylamide-acrylic acid) "PAM-AA" as a template polymer by using a template polymerization technique. The effect of gamma radiation on the polymerization process showed that the conversion increases with increasing the radiation dose. The obtained polymer is water-soluble polymer at low doses <10 KGy. On increasing the radiation dose, the polymer was converted into a gel and the swelling degree was found to vary from 15 to 36. It was found that the capacities of the obtained polymeric gels toward Cu2+ increase with increasing the radiation dose, monomer concentration and the template polymer/monomer molar ratio. Spectroscopic studies showed that the mechanism of the flee formation after cation build-up is due to the interaction between the polymer and copper sulfate is a bond formation between the active groups of polymer chains and ions of copper sulfate. The amide and tertiary amino groups form complex with Cu2+ while carboxylic group interacts with Cu2+ through cation-exchange mechanism.