Photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization of acrylonitrile in miniemulsion

Photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) in miniemulsion was reported. PET-RAFT polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) was successfully accomplished with 4-cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate (CPADB) as chain transfer agent (CTA), sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as emulsifier, hexadecane (HD) as co-stabilizer and TiO2 as photocatalyst at 25 degrees C. The linear first-order kinetic plots were observed in miniemulsion with different amounts of SDS. Excellent temporal control was demonstrated by switching between ON/OFF states multiple times, and the prepared PAN macro-CTA was used successfully to perform the chain extension experiments, indicating high retention of chain end functionality. Furthermore, the obtained PAN was amidoximated with NH2OH<bold>HCl</bold>. The Cd2+ was extracted with amidoxime (-C(NH2)=NOH) from aqueous solutions. The maximum adsorption of 98.6% Cd2+ with 400mg of the adsorbent was observed at pH 6.0 and an initial Cd(2+)concentration of 4mmol/L.