Sustainable removal of phenol from wastewater using a biopolymer hydrogel adsorbent comprising crosslinked chitosan and κ-carrageenan

Ali A Hamid; Javed Alam; Arun Kumar Shukla; Fekri Abdulraqeb Ahmed Ali; Mansour Alhoshan

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126340

Sustainable removal of phenol from wastewater using a biopolymer hydrogel adsorbent comprising crosslinked chitosan and κ-carrageenan

Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Aug 15:251:126340. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126340. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ali A Hamid¹, Javed Alam², Arun Kumar Shukla³, Fekri Abdulraqeb Ahmed Ali⁴, Mansour Alhoshan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
² King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: javaalam@ksu.edu.sa.
³ King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, IMSIU, Riyadh 11432, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia; Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia; K.A.CARE Energy Research and Innovation Centre, Riyadh 11454, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: mhoshan@ksu.edu.sa.

PMID: 37591437
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126340

Abstract

A biopolymer-based adsorbent comprising chitosan (CS) and κ-carrageenan (κ-Carr) was synthesised and evaluated to treat phenolic-contaminated water. The developed CS/κ-Carr hydrogel demonstrated excellent performance with a phenol adsorption uptake of 80 %. The morphologies of CS/κ-Carr hydrogels with different ratios of CS to κ-Carr ranging from 1:2 to 7:3 were characterised using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy; their chemical structures were investigated by spectral analyses using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry; their adsorption characteristics were determined using tests for swelling, chemical stability, hygroscopic moisture content, and hydrophilicity. Finally, a batch-type evaluation method demonstrated adsorption performance at 25 °C and pH 6.9. Adsorption isotherms and kinetic data were successfully obtained using the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order models, respectively. The results indicate that one-pot synthesis of an insoluble CS/κ-Carr hydrogel adsorbent exhibits considerable potential for the removal of phenol from aqueous solutions, providing an environmentally friendly technology enhancing the phenol adsorption performance of CS.

Keywords: Biopolymer-based adsorbent; Chitosan-κ-carrageenan hydrogel; Green crosslinking technology; Phenol removal.