Characterization and Modification of Red Mud and Ferrosilicomanganese Fines and Their Application in the Synthesis of Hybrid Hydrogels

In this work, hybrid hydrogels were synthesized with the inclusion of two types of clay materials that are considered industrial waste: red mud (RM) and ferrosilicomanganese fines (FeSiMn). These solid waste materials were characterized by studying their particle size and chemical composition, which...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Authors: Ramírez, Arnaldo, Gómez, Leonir, Müller Sánchez, Alejandro Jesús, Rojas de Gáscue, Blanca
Format: article
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Universidad del País Vasco
Repository:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/58250
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/58250
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:red mud
modification
hybrid hydrogel
Description
Summary:In this work, hybrid hydrogels were synthesized with the inclusion of two types of clay materials that are considered industrial waste: red mud (RM) and ferrosilicomanganese fines (FeSiMn). These solid waste materials were characterized by studying their particle size and chemical composition, which are two key variables for their application in the synthesis of hybrid hydrogels. The morphology imaged by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), showed, in the case of RM, heterogeneous size and shape particles, with 73% of the particles having lengths of less than 5 μm. On the other hand, FeSiMn had particles with a circular morphology of nanometric sizes. Regarding the synthesis of the hybrid hydrogels, it was determined that the incorporation of small percentages (0.1%) of the inorganic phases improved the capacity of the materials to absorb water (swelling indices of 1678% and 1597% for the RM and FeSiMn hydrogels, respectively) compared to the conventional polyacrylamide hydrogel (1119%). An improvement in Vickers microhardness and storage modulus (G′) was also observed: the hybrid with 10% RM presented a G′, 50 times higher than conventional hydrogel. The results show the merit of RM and FeSiMn in improving the properties of hydrogels.