Polyacrylamide Soil Conditioners: The
Impact on Nanostructured Clay
Minerals’ Aggregation and Heavy
Metals’ Circulation in the Soil
Environment
Gracja Fijałkowska, Katarzyna Szewczuk-Karpisz,
and Małgorzata Wi´ sniewska
1 Polyacrylamide Structure and Preparation
Polyacrylamides (PAMs) are group of water-soluble, synthetic polyelectrolytes
derived from acrylamide monomer in polymerization process [1–3]. They are
substances which dissolve, disperse, or swell in water and thus can modify physical
properties of aqueous system due to thickening, gelation, emulsification, or stabilization processes. Polyacrylamide chains consist of repeating units or blocks of units
that form the structure containing hydrophilic groups acting as substituents or incorporated into the macromolecule backbone. Polyacrylamides can be classified into
nonionic, anionic, and cationic ones [4, 5]. Each of these types due to their properties is used in many industries, mainly in water treatment, mineral processing, or soil
conditioning [5]. Application areas of abovementioned polyacrylamide types depend
on the specific function of the polymer needed. The adsorption process of macromolecular compounds such as PAMs on the suspended matter particles governs the
individual polymer performance. These polyelectrolytes can interact through specific
or non-specific type forces with various charged substrates. The type of interaction
between the polymer macromolecule and a substrate depends on the nature and
polarity of the polymer itself and the surface on which it adsorbs.
Nonionic polyacrylamide has a strong hydrophilic character, greater than other
nonionic, water-soluble polymers. Despite being described as nonionic synthetic
G. Fijałkowska (B) · M. Wi´ sniewska
Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Radiochemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Institute of
Chemical Sciences, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, M. Curie-Sklodowska Sq. 3,
20-031 Lublin, Poland
e-mail: gracja.fijalkowska@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl
K. Szewczuk-Karpisz
Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Do´ swiadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
O. Fesenko and L. Yatsenko (eds.), Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites,
Nanostructure Surfaces, and Their Applications, Springer Proceedings
in Physics 246, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51905-6_9
111
Impact on Nanostructured Clay
Minerals’ Aggregation and Heavy
Metals’ Circulation in the Soil
Environment
Gracja Fijałkowska, Katarzyna Szewczuk-Karpisz,
and Małgorzata Wi´ sniewska
1 Polyacrylamide Structure and Preparation
Polyacrylamides (PAMs) are group of water-soluble, synthetic polyelectrolytes
derived from acrylamide monomer in polymerization process [1–3]. They are
substances which dissolve, disperse, or swell in water and thus can modify physical
properties of aqueous system due to thickening, gelation, emulsification, or stabilization processes. Polyacrylamide chains consist of repeating units or blocks of units
that form the structure containing hydrophilic groups acting as substituents or incorporated into the macromolecule backbone. Polyacrylamides can be classified into
nonionic, anionic, and cationic ones [4, 5]. Each of these types due to their properties is used in many industries, mainly in water treatment, mineral processing, or soil
conditioning [5]. Application areas of abovementioned polyacrylamide types depend
on the specific function of the polymer needed. The adsorption process of macromolecular compounds such as PAMs on the suspended matter particles governs the
individual polymer performance. These polyelectrolytes can interact through specific
or non-specific type forces with various charged substrates. The type of interaction
between the polymer macromolecule and a substrate depends on the nature and
polarity of the polymer itself and the surface on which it adsorbs.
Nonionic polyacrylamide has a strong hydrophilic character, greater than other
nonionic, water-soluble polymers. Despite being described as nonionic synthetic
G. Fijałkowska (B) · M. Wi´ sniewska
Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Radiochemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Institute of
Chemical Sciences, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, M. Curie-Sklodowska Sq. 3,
20-031 Lublin, Poland
e-mail: gracja.fijalkowska@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl
K. Szewczuk-Karpisz
Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Do´ swiadczalna 4, 20-290 Lublin, Poland
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
O. Fesenko and L. Yatsenko (eds.), Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites,
Nanostructure Surfaces, and Their Applications, Springer Proceedings
in Physics 246, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51905-6_9
111