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.

What is a polymeric flocculant?

The addition of a polymeric flocculant allows for the destabilization of suspended colloidal particles, and thus significantly increases their sedimentation rate. Polymeric flocculants are generally divided into four categories, which include non-ionic, cationic, anionic, and amphoteric polymers.

How is anionic polyacrylamide synthesized?

Synthesis mechanism The anionic polyacrylamide was synthesized by copolymerizing AM and SAS monomers. The essence of copolymerization is the free radical reaction. Thus, this chain reaction can be divided into three distinct processes: initiation, propagation, and termination.

What spectroscopy is used to identify anionic polyacrylamide flocculant?

The anionic polyacrylamide (APAM-T) flocculant was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1 H NMR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was conducted to measure the elemental composition.

How to determine da of polymer flocculants?

Based on thorough chemical analysis of the main ions and total organic carbon (TOC) content in diluted aqueous PAM solutions, Arinaitwe and Pawlik developed a method for determining the DA of these flocculants, defined as the percent fraction of acrylic units in the polymer chain.