Preparation, characterization and investigation of potential sorption cababilities of new polymer/clay composite hydrogels alloyed carrageenan

In this study, acrylamide monomer and sodium methacrylate as a comonomer and in order to form a semi-IPN and composite structure with carrageenan as a naturel polymer and montmorillonite as a clay mineral have been synthesized for the production of chemically crosslinked copolymers. Hydrogel systems were prepared by free radical polymerization in aqueous solution using poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate as a crosslinker. Structural characterization of prepared chemically crosslinked polymers were tried to determine by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs were taken for determination of surface porosity of hydrogels. Dynamic swelling tests were applied at 25oC for the purpose of investigation of swelling properties of crosslinked copolymers. According to obtained data, parameters concerning swelling kinetics and diffusion mechanism were calculated. A cationic dye such as safranin T was selected as model molecule to investigate of adsorption properties of the hydrogels. It was determined that crosslinked copolymers adsorbed dye of safranin T from aqueous solutions in high level. Key words: Acrylamide, carrageenan, clay, montmorillonite, hydrogel, composite, adsorption, safranin T.