Synthesis of super-absorbent poly(AN)-g-starch composite hydrogel and its modelling for aqueous sorption of cadmium ions

To entrench heavy metal chelation functional groups, native corn starch was grafted with acrylonitrile and subsequently hydrolyzed (using sodium hydroxide) to produce chemically crosslinked superabsorbent hydrogels (SAHs) of three-dimensional hydrophilic polymeric networks. SAHs demonstrated fast swelling and superabsorbent properties, with a swelling capacity of 612 g water/g SAHs. Due to the usefulness of equilibrium and kinetic data for...