Adsorption of 1,2-dichloroethane in water using temperature sensitive polymeric hydrogel and its mechanism

Polyvinylalcohol (PVA) hydrogel was found to be a temperature-sensitive pol ymeric gel, whose volume and the surface properties changed in the temperat ure range from 275 K to 310 K. In this study, a method was proposed for removal of 1, 2 dichloroethane fro m water by adsorption onto a temperature-sensitive PVA polymeric hydrogel. The amount of adsorbed organic compound increased remarkably at temperature s higher than about 310 K, and it was confirmed that the polymeric hydrogel could adsorb and desorb the organic compound according to the temperature change between 323 K and 298 K. It was also observed that the PVA polymeric hydrogel was effective for the removal of an extremely small amount of tox ic organic compound in waste water and was repeatedly usable as an adsorben t. The mechanism of the adsorption of 1, 2-dichloroethane on PVA polymeric hydrogel could be well explained using the adsorption rate equation based o n diffusion in the polymeric hydrogel as the rate determining step.