Synthesis and photochemical stability of acrylamide and succinic anhydride copolymer with dyes

A copolymer of acrylamide (PAM) and succinic anhydride (SA) was obtained. The effect of dye (anthocyanin, bromophenol blue, thymol blue) on the photochemical stability of the copolymer (PAM-g-SA) was studied. X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, UV-Vis, NMR, DSC and TGA were used to evaluate PAM-g-SA. FT-IR analysis showed the disappearance of two bands at wavenumbers 3450 and 3380 cm-1 characteristic of the stretching vibrations of the primary amine, which indicates the formation of amides. UV photolysis of aqueous solutions with different concentrations of the copolymer was studied. PAM-g-SA showed an increase in the degree of polymerization under the influence of light (ca. 50%) for a solution of 200 mg/L after 10 h of irradiation. PAM-g-SA-anthocyanin also showed an increase in the degree of polymerization (26%) for the 1000 mg/L solution after 10 h of irradiation. Similar behavior was observed for anthocyanin (23%) at the dye concentration of 15000 mg/L. On the other hand, PAM-g-SA-bromophenol and PAM-g-SA-thymol were photodegraded after UV irradiation. It was shown that the photodegradation of PAM-g-SA can be prevented by the addition of appropriate dye.