Use of poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-sodium acrylate) hydrogel to extract cationic dyes and metals from water

Poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide-co-sodium acrylate) hydrogel, which bears negatively charged –COO^? groups was used to extract organic or inorganic solutes from water. Some model dyes and metal ions have been studied. Cationic dyes are strongly adsorbed and retained by the polymer while adsorbance of hydrophobic dyes was very low and that of anionic dyes was negligible. Both maximum adsorption and equilibrium binding constant varied from one cationic species to the other depending on the chemical structure of the dye, the presence of functional chemical groups and the hydrophobic–hydrophilic balance. In the case of metal cations, adsorption depended on valence. The hydrogel can be regenerated in an aqueous phase of low pH and thus be reused in several adsorption procedures.