Chemical modification of polypropylene fibers grafted vinyl imidazole/acrylonitrile copolymer prepared by gamma radiation and its possible use for the removal of some heavy metal ions

The chemical modification of polypropylene (PP) fibers by graft copolymerization with vinylimidazole (VIm) and acrylonitrile (AN) was carried out using γ‐radiation. Preparation conditions, such as irradiation dose, comonomer concentration and composition and type of solvent, affecting the degree of grafting were investigated. The suitable diluent for obtaining reasonable graft VIm/AN copolymer yield was acetone. The higher grafted yield was achieved by increasing the amount of vinylimidazole in comonomer feed solution as well as irradiation dose. The derivatives of PP‐g‐P(VIm/AN) grafted fibers of different functional groups were obtained by treating the grafted fibers with various organic reagents containing reactive amino groups, such as sulpha‐drug compounds, aliphatic‐ and aromatic amines. Characterization of the obtained graft copolymers and their chemical treatments with different amines was also investigated. It was observed that the nitrile group in PP‐g‐P(VIm/AN) polymer undergoes simple addition reaction via nucleophilic interaction mechanism to produce the corresponding PP‐graft‐P(vinylimidazole/acrylomidine) derivatives. The ability of the grafted fibers and their treated forms to absorb some metal ions as Cd, Hg, and Pb from their individual and mixture solutions was evaluated.