Chitosan-minerals-based composites for adsorption of caesium, cobalt and europium

Galina Lujanienė; Raman Novikau; Karolina Karalevičiūtė; Vidas Pakštas; Martynas Talaikis; Loreta Levinskaitė; Aušra Selskienė; Algirdas Selskis; Jonas Mažeika; Kęstutis Jokšas

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132747

Chitosan-minerals-based composites for adsorption of caesium, cobalt and europium

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Jan 15:462:132747. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132747. Epub 2023 Oct 12.

Affiliations

¹ Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Savanorių Str. 231, LT-02300 Vilnius, Lithuania. Electronic address: galina.lujaniene@ftmc.lt.
² Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Savanorių Str. 231, LT-02300 Vilnius, Lithuania.
³ Nature Research Centre, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania.

PMID: 37837775
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.132747

Abstract

Currently, there is a growing interest in the use of natural materials in various fields of science, technology and environmental protection due to their availability, low-cost, non-toxicity and biodegradability. Chitosan, natural clay of local origin, montmorillonite, zeolite, cross-linking agents (epichlorohydrin, sodium tripolyphosphate, glutaraldehyde) and plasticisers (glycerol) were used to synthesise composites. The composites were characterised by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), tested for their antibacterial activity and used in batch experiments to study the adsorption of caesium, cobalt and europium ions. The maximum capacities for adsorption of caesium, cobalt and europium on the composites were 1400 mg/g, 900 mg/g and 18 mg/g, respectively. The experimental data fit better the Langmuir isotherm model and indicate favourable monolayer adsorption of Cs⁺, Co²⁺ and Eu³⁺ at homogeneous sites of the composites. The experimental data were in better agreement with the pseudo-second-order non-linear kinetic model for most elements and adsorbents. Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system proved to be a practical tool with good performance and generalisation capability for predicting the adsorption capacity of composites for caesium, cobalt, and europium ions. It was found that the predicted data were very close to the experimental data.

Keywords: Adsorption; Aluminosilicate minerals; Caesium; Chitosan; Cobalt; Europium.