Glucose and glycidol grafted polyacrylonitrile particles by hydrothermal synthesis for enriched boron from aqueous solution

The removal of boron from aqueous solution and the enrichment of boron from salt lake have attracted more attention. In this work, ethylenediamine and polyethyleneimine were grafted onto polyacrylonitrile with different degree of polymerization by hydrothermal method, and then reacted with glycidol and glucose to introduce polyhydroxy structure. The chemical composition and surface properties of the four boron adsorbents were characterized by IR, SEM, Mapping, TG-DSC-DTG and BET. The adsorption isotherm and adsorption kinetics of boron adsorption were investigated systematically. The results showed that the maximum boron adsorption capacity of PAN85000/150000-EN-PG and PAN85000/150000-PEI-GLC were 18.43, 15.27, 19.27 and 20.91 mg/g, respectively. The four adsorbents obey Langmuir adsorption model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The presence of salt lake brine ions Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+ and Cl− have little interference with boron adsorption. These adsorbents maintained good adsorption performance after 5 times adsorption-desorption processes. They are expected to be ideal environmentally friendly adsorbents for the enrichment of boron from salt lakes.