Structural Investigations of Silica Polyamine Composites: Surface Coverage, Metal Ion Coordination, and Ligand Modification

Silanization of the silica gel surface in the synthesis of silica gel polyamine composites uses (chloropropyl)trichlorosilane (CPTCS). It is possible to substitute a molar fraction of reagent CPTCS with methyltrichlorosilane (MTCS), creating a mixed silane surface layer. Two types of silica gels were modified with a series of MTCS:CPTCS molar ratios. Solid-state CP/MAS 29Si and 13C NMR spectroscopies were used to evaluate the surface silane composition. Surface silane coverage was markedly improved for the resulting gels. When polyamines were grafted to the resultant MTCS:CPTCS silane layers, it was shown that the decrease in the number of propyl attachments to the polyamine resulted in increased quantities of “free amines”. Optimum MTCS:CPTCS ratios were determined for three polyamines grafted onto one silica gel. A substantial free amine increase was observed for poly(allylamine) (PAA). Metal uptake studies show increases in Cu(II) capacity and/or an improvement in Cu(II) mass-transfer kinetics. The effect of polymer molecular weight upon Cu(II) capacity was investigated for each polyamine. Substantial differences in Cu(II) capacity between 50 000 MW poly(vinylamine) (PVA) and >1000 MW PVA were evident. Similar differences between 25 000 MW poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and 1200 MW PEI were found. The mass-transfer kinetics was shown to be improved for composites prepared using a large fraction of MTCS in the reagent silane mixture. This resulted in substantial improvements in the 10% breakthrough Cu(II) capacity for PVA (50 000 MW). PEI composites were further modified to form an amino-acetate ligand. The impact of the MTCS:CPTCS silane ratio on the acetate ligand loading and ultimately on the Cu(II) capacity at pH = 2 was investigated. A ratio of 12.5:1 was shown to result in an acetate modified PEI composite with a Cu(II) capacity 140% of the Cu(II) capacity of the same composite prepared with "CPTCS only".