Novel crosslinked gels with starch derivatives. Polymer-water interactions. Applications in waste water treatment.

Crosslinked polymers containing starch have been used for the recovery of v arious pollutants from aqueous solutions. These polymers have been prepared by reticulation of starch-enriched flour using epichlorohydrin as crosslin king agent. Several studies (kinetics, time, concentration, role of crossli nking agent) are presented here. The results show that these polymers exhib it high sorption capacities toward substituted phenol derivatives. The mech anism of sorption is both physical and steric adsorption in the polymer net work and/or the formation of hydrogen bond and hydrophobic interactions.