Effect of glutraldehyde and halloysite on gelatin-carboxymethyl cellulose gel formed via phase separation: Potential application in removal of methylene blue from waste water

Abstract

Interaction between gelatin A (GA) and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt (CMC) at a particular stoichiometric ratio i.e. concentration of GA (CG): concentration of CMC, (CCMC) =2: 0.1 (% w/v) in aqueous medium led to the phase separation phenomenon. The phase separated complexes readily form gel (G2C0.1) within 3 h as compared to gel formed by pure gelatin in 3 days. Various other gel samples G2C0.1H1 and G2C0.1GT0.5 were also formed by adding halloysite (HNT) and glutraldehyde during the formation of G2C0.1, respectively. XRD data showed that CMC, HNT and glutraldehyde were responsible for the loss of triple helix structure of gelatin in gels. Rheological measurements revealed that the gel strength of physical gel (G2C0.1) was comparable to chemically crosslinked gel (G2C0.1GT0.5) using glutraldehyde. The% swelling ratio of physical gel (G2C0.1) and chemically crosslinked gel (G2C0.1GT0.5) was observed to be 672 and 188, respectively. The gel also seems to have potential to be used for the removal of methylene blue from waste water.

Keywords

• Complexation
• Physical gel
• Swelling
• Water treatment