Preparation And Properties Of EPDM-based Adsorption Water Treatment Composite Foams

At present, with the speed up of urbanization and the developing of industrial andagricultural, a large number of harmful substances are discharged into water bodiesand have become a serious threat to the ecological environment and human health.Water pollution has become a major problem all around the world. China is one ofthe thirteen water-poor countries recognized by the United Nations and suffers froma serious shortage of water resources. Besides, because of unreasonabledevelopment and utilization of resources, water resources continue to get worse andavailable water resources constantly decrease, the prospects of our country’s waterresources are worrisome. From the ‘’Eleventh Five-Year’’ plan, the governmentincreases environmental investment, encourages the recycling economy, supportssustainable development, and has a particular emphasis on the management andprotection of water resources. Therefore the study of the comprehensivemanagement of water pollution will have a very important practical significance.Although many treatment processes have been proposed for the removal ofenvironmental contaminants from an aqueous solution, adsorption is considered tobe a particularly important environmentally friendly process for quickly loweringthe concentration of the harmful pollutants and will not cause secondary pollution.Polymer foam materials are widely used in engineering, architecture, medical andmany other industries due to their low density, larger specific surface and relativelyhigh strength, and also have many applications in the field of water treatment.However, rubber foaming materials on the basis of closed pore structure have notbeen reported.Towards the current trend of water environment pollution, where oil and ioniccontamination is relatively more severe in all, EPDM rubber was chosen as the mainmatrix to prepared three kinds of water treatment composite foam absorbent material:EPDM foam oil absorption material, blending modified EPDM foam oil absorption material and the amphiphilic composite foam absorbent material by simple meltblending and molded foaming. With a low density leading its floating on water, thematerial has good adsorption ability on oils and ionic contaminants and can maintaina high strength and be easily recycled after adsorption.1. For EPDM foam oil absorption material, the impact of DCP and AC onoil-absorbing properties of materials was studied, and the optimal amount ofDCP and AC was1.5Phr and10Phr; Through foaming process, the oilabsorbency was greatly improved, and the maximum oil absorbency was12.73g/g which was increased by566.5%compared to the corresponding solidmaterial; the adding of glass fiber and of different modification had varyingdegrees of impact on oil absorbency, and the order of oil absorbency of differentmaterials was: TDI modified unmodified no filler Silane coupling agentmodified; The adsorption mechanism was also researched.2. For blending modified EPDM foam oil absorption material, the maximum oilabsorbency of LLDPE/EPDM foam and EVA/EPDM foam was14.21g/g and18.03g/g which was increased by11.63%and41.63%compared to EPDM foam;The EPDM-based foam oil absorption materials could be easily recycled due toits long-standing foam structure; EVA/EPDM foam had more excellentperformance towards the absorption of oil pollutants of different polarity.3. For amphiphilic composite foam absorbent material, graphene oxide coated glassfiber was prepared. This material could easily fill the filtration column and hadgood performance on the adsorption of MB; amphiphilic composite foamabsorbent materials were prepared through adding EVA/EPDM as matrix and(GO coated) GF and ion exchange resin as functional adsorption filler.(GOcoated)GF/EVA/EPDM foam could adsorb toluene and MB in water at the sametime which was limited by the structure of graphite oxide and composite foam.Ion exchange resin/EVA/EPDM composite foam had improved structure andbetter adsorption effect. It could simultaneously adsorb toluene, MB or Cr6+andhad relatively higher removal efficiency; The adsorption capacity of ionexchange resin/EVA/EPDM foam at different system was also studied, and it was proved that the presence of oil could lead a low removal efficiency of MB orCr6+.