Acrylamide Cross‐Linked Psyllium Polysaccharide with Improved Flocculation Performance for the Removal of Microplastics from Water

Abstract This article presents a novel material of acrylamide (AM) cross‐linked psyllium polysaccharides (PLP) derivative, PLP‐AM, which can be used as an effective polymeric flocculant for the removal of microplastics (MP) from water. PLP‐AM was produced by radical polymerization of PLP and AM using microwave irradiation instead of conventional radical initiators. The characterization of PLP‐AM was carried out by FT‐IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, intrinsic viscosity measurement and thermogravimetric analysis (TG). Polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were utilized to examine the flocculation performance of PLP‐AM. The optimum flocculation conditions were obtained by the comprehensive exploration of flocculant concentration, solution pH and temperature. In a solution with a pH 6 at 30 °C, the maximum removal percentages of PS and PVC by 60 mg/L of PLP‐AM were 92.55 % and 94.31 %, respectively, while 93.85 % of the maximum removal of PET percentage could be obtained by 80 mg/L of PLP‐AM. The results of zeta potential measurement revealed that there was adsorption electric neutralization between MP and PLP‐AM besides the adsorption bridging mechanism. These results suggest that PLP‐AM may bring an inspiration for the development of polymer flocculant to remove MP from water.