Biopolymers (chitin, chitosan) like potential adsorbents are often challenged by weak stability, poor dispersibility, low adsorption, and difficulty of recovery. This work demonstrates the synthesis of an adsorbent in the form of CS/MWCNTs/Fe beads by combining chitosan and sodium alginate with magnetic iron oxide-doped MWCNTs. The prepared composite beads were then used for the adsorption of Cr(VI) from water samples. The physicochemical properties of CS/MWCNTs/Fe beads were characterized in detail by using FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDS, and TGA. The outer to inner core structural characterization of composite beads found that the magnetic iron oxide-doped MWCNTs coated with chitosan were uniformly dispersed inside the alginate beads, making their shape as a spherical shell. During the adsorption experiments, CS/MWCNTs/Fe beads showed robust performance in Cr(VI) removal and could separate easily by using external magnet from the aqueous sample having the initial concentration, solution pH and temperature as critical factors to control their removal performance. We demonstrated that these beads can achieve a high Cr(VI) removal performance with an optimized chitosan and alginate contents. The pseudo-second-order model showed the best fit with experimental data, suggesting the rate-limiting factor of the adsorption. Langmuir isotherm with a maximum adsorption capacity of 11.74 mg/g characterized the Cr(VI) removal behavior. Moreover, the composite beads showed up to 76% of Cr(VI) removal efficiency after five cycles of adsorption. The synergistic impact in this process suggests the promising potential of CS/MWCNTs/Fe beads for the elimination of contaminants from the water bodies.

Chitosan crosslinking into magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes beads for efficient Cr(VI) removal

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.