Many industries such as textile, leather, and paper, use dyes to tint their products, with the potential to end in wastewaters. Methylene blue (MB), a blue thiazine dye, is most commonly used in textile industries. On the other hand, congo red (CR), a persistent contaminant in natural environments, is an azo-based dye that can be metabolized in benzidine, a known human carcinogen. Therefore, an approach to remove those dyes from water matrices is needed. On this basis, the simultaneous adsorption of MB (cationic dye) and CR (anionic dye), onto chitosan/cellulose-based beads exhibiting cationic and anionic adsorption capacities was evaluated. Beads synthesized at different w/w ratios of chitosan and cellulose were contacted with aqueous solutions of dyes mixture. The results evidenced the capability of chitosan/cellulose beads to remove simultaneously the MB and CR. The sorption mechanism involves electrostatic interactions between the polymeric matrix of the adsorbents and the dyes species.

Simultaneous sorption of cationic and anionic dyes by chitosan/cellulose beads for water purification

245th National Meeting (2013)

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