Preparation of Nanochitosan as an Effective Sorbent for the Removal of Copper Ions from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

The most important pollutants in wastewater are heavy metal ions. In this paper, the effects of various parameters such as pH, contact time, initial concentration, and temperature on the adsorption of Cu (II) by nanochitosan (NCS) was investigated in batch experiment. Nanochitosan was prepared based on ionic gelation and charac­terized by means of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. Maximum uptake of Cu (II) was recorded at pH=6. Equilibrium data for Cu (II) were fitted well by Langmuir adsorption model with maximum adsorption capacity of 33.33 mg/g at 25°C. The obtained data showed that kinetically proceeded according to pseudo second-order model. It was concluded that NCS had great potential to remove Cu (II) ions from the aqueous solutions at various concentrations of metal ions.