A Molecular-Based Design of RGO/TiO2-PAM Composite Flocculant with Photocatalytic Self-Degrading Characteristics and the Application of the Oil Sand Tailings Flocculant

Abstract

Polymer flocculation technology has a very broad application in the flocculation industry of oil sand tailings at present. Nevertheless, the most commonly used commercial polyacrylamide flocculant has problems of low flocculation efficiency and secondary pollution. In this paper, we proposed an organic–inorganic composite flocculant with self-degrading properties for the flocculation treatment of oil sand tailings, which was prepared by a photocatalytic surface initiation technique. Further, the functional groups of the materials before and after polymerization composites were characterized by infrared spectrum to explore the polymerization mechanism, the structure was observed by transmission electron microscope, and the molecular weight of polyacrylamide was measured by gel permeation chromatography. Then, the flocculation performance was characterized by the flocculation experiment (tested with simulated oil sand tailings). Subsequently, the flocculation mechanism was explored by testing the zeta poten...