Oil Sorbents based on Methacrylic Acid - Grafted Polypropylene Fibers: Synthesis and Characterization

PP-g-MAA oil sorption materials were synthesized by graft polymerization method of methacrylic acid (MAA) onto polypropylene fibers (PP) using divilylbenzene (DVB) as cross-linking agent. The virgin and grafted PP fibers were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, TGA, and DSC analysis. The results revealed that MAA was grafted onto PP fibers successfully. Factors affected the grafting yield (GY) were examined such as monomer concentration, initiator concentration, effects of temperature as well as reaction time. At the DVB and MAA concentrations of 1.5% and 2%, respectively, the maximum GY was obtained (73.1%). The obtained correlation coefficient (R2) from well-known Langmuir sorption isotherms suggested well-fitting of the experimental data, which is assumed that at maximum coverage with identical sorption sites, there is monomolecular layer sorption on the PP-g-MAA surface. Oil sorption capacity of PP-g-MAA fibers was investigated which revealed a maximum oil sorption capacity (qmax) of 20.833 g/g. SEM pictures and FTIR results were taken for these materials under test.