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Published on: February 27, 2021
Enhanced chromium (VI) adsorption using nanosized chitosan fibers tailored by electrospinning
Lei Li1, Yanxiang Li2, Lixia Cao2
1National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Abstract:
Stacked chitosan nanofibers with an average diameter of 75 nm were successfully produced by electrospinning using 5 wt% chitosan in acetic acid as the spinning solution. The fibers were then cross-linked with glutaraldehyde to remove chromium [Cr(VI)] from water via static adsorption. It was found that the adsorption correlated well with pseudo-second order kinetic model, and followed a mixed isotherm of Freundlich and Langmuir. The maximum nanofibers adsorption capacity was 131.58 mg/g, more than doubled that of chitosan powders. Common co-ions such as Cl(-), NO3(-), Na(+), Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) had little or no effect on the adsorption but SO4(2-) was an exception. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectrophotometer analyses indicated that both amino and hydroxyl groups of chitosan were engaged in the adsorption.
