Preparation of Sugarcane Bagasse/Poly(Acrylic Acid-co-Acrylamide) Hydrogels and their Application

In this work, sugarcane bagasse, being an abundant and renewable resource, was used as a raw material to prepare sugarcane bagasse-g-poly( acrylic acid-co-acrylamide) (SB/P(AA-co-AM)) hydrogels. The hydrogels were prepared by free radical graft copolymerization of SB with AA and AM using N, N-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. The optimal synthesis conditions were determined by investigating the water absorbency of the hydrogels. The maximum water absorbency reached 269 g/g in deionized water, and the corresponding copper ions adsorption capacity was 265 mg/g. These grafted hydrogels showed a pH-sensitive swelling behavior. Furthermore, they also exhibited excellent water retention capacity, which reserved 92.7%, 81.7%, and 76.8% for 44 h, and 83.7%, 58.6%, and 47.1% for 116 h at 5 degrees C, 25 degrees C, and 35 degrees C, respectively. FTIR spectroscopy and SEM were used to reveal the chemical structure and the morphology of the hydrogels. SEM/EDS further confirmed the adsorption of the copper(II) on the resulting hydrogels. Therefore, SB/P(AA-co-AM) hydrogels could have promising applications as water retention agents and metal ions adsorbents in water treatment and agricultural industries.