Preparation of Sweet-potato Starch Microspheres and Its Application to the Removal of Cu²⁺ in Wastewater

Starch microspheres were prepared by inverse cross linking-emulsion method with sweet potato starch as raw material, Span 60 and tween-60 as emulsifiers, and N, N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBAA) as crosslinking agent. Their functional groups were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), the morphologies of starch microspheres were observed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their specific surface areas and pore sizes were also tested. The optimum condition for the removal of Cu²⁺were investigated by simulation wastewater.Results showed that the structure of sweetpotato starch microsphere was fit to adsorb Cu²⁺and when the mass concentration of microphere was 0.12 g·mL^-1, and the adsorption time was 45 min, the adsorption effect was the best. The adsorption test of Cu²⁺in Xi'an Seoul lake water was carried out under the optimum condition, and the removal rate reached to 82.45%.