Polypropylene-Polypropylene-Grafted-Maleic Anhydride-Montmorillonite Clay Nanocomposites for Pb(II) Removal

Polypropylene (PP) reinforced montmorillonite (MMT) clay nanocomposites were synthesized with and without the polypropylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) as compatibiliser, by melt mix extrusion and molded through Mucell((R)) injection technique. The PP and PP-g-MA based nanocomposites were fabricated for adsorption application for removal of Pb(II) metal ion. The structural morphologies of all samples evaluated on XRD, TEM, SEM, and TGA illustrated the thermally stable, and crystallined materials with pore-like cells. Microscopic MMT revealed the effects of maleic acid (MA) and MMT content on both cell density and cell size of the foamed samples. The cell size of neat PP (200 mu m) changed to 100, 105, and 75 mu m for MMT compositions of 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0wt%, respectively while 96, 78, and 85 mu m for 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0wt% for MMT composition of PP-g-MA (60 mu m) were obtained. The existence of platelet morphologies of well dispersed MMT within the polymer matrix were shown by TEM analysis. The removal of Pb(II) with neat PP and The PP-g-MA/MMT 0.5wt% nanocomposite was found to follow the Langmuir isotherm model. The results indicated that PP-g-MA/MMT 0.5wt% nanocomposite can be efficiently used as a superabsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solution.