Why are non ionic and anionic polyacrylamide based flocculant chains used in tailings treatment?

Non-ionic and anionic polyacrylamide (PAM)-based flocculant chains are commonly employed in a vast majority of tailings treatment operations and several studies have been conducted on degradation of PAMs due to various factors such as pH, light and temperature , microbial degradation and chemical degradation .

Does ultrasonication affect the degradation of polyacrylamide-based flocculants?

The effect of ultrasonication, screening and shearing on five polyacrylamide-based flocculants of similar molecular weight but different degrees of anionicity (DA) was studied through measurement of intrinsic viscosity ( [η]) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) to investigate the influence of DA on the degradation of polymers.

Does Pam degradation affect flocculant performance?

PAM-based flocculant degradation has been mainly studied for PAMs in aqueous solutions. The degradation of PAMs results in a reduction of the molecular weight of the polymer and can adversely affect the performance of such aqueous solutions in their commercial application as flocculants.

Are Pam flocculants toxic?

The potential environmental hazard does not concern the PAM itself, which is generally considered as not toxic (Andersen 2005), but the products of PAM degradation and the residual AMD contained in the flocculants due to incomplete polymerization process (Labahn et al. 2010; Young et al. 2007; Caulfield et al. 2002).

What is high molecular weight polyacrylamide (PAM)?

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative High molecular weight (106–3 × 107 Da) polyacrylamide (PAM) is commonly used as a flocculant in water and wastewater treatment, as a soil conditioner, and as a viscosity modifier and friction reducer in both enhanced oil recovery and high volume hydraulic fracturing.

How do high molecular weight PAMS work as flocculants?

High molecular weight PAMs (10 6 to 10 7 g mol −1) work as flocculants by causing suspended particles to bind together to form larger aggregates, which can settle out quickly from solution leaving a clear supernatant (Heath et al. 2006).