A sustainable strategy to fabricate chitosan-based composite hydrogels with tunable properties and controllable adsorption capacity of trace pharmaceuticals was demonstrated. Two biobased modifiers were utilized to tune the properties, nano-graphene oxide (nGO) derived from chitosan via microwave-assisted carbonization and oxidation, and genipin as the crosslinking agent. An increase in genipin content facilitated an increase in the degree of crosslinking as shown by improved storage modulus and decreased swelling ratio. Increasing nGO content changed the surface microtopography of the hydrogel which correlated with the surface wettability. nGO also catalyzed the genipin-crosslinking reaction. The hydrogel was further shown to be an effective adsorbent for a common anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac sodium (DCF), with the removal efficiency ranging from 91 to 100% after 48 h. DCF adsorption efficiency could be tuned through simple alteration of nGO and genipin concentration, which provides promising potential for this environmental-friendly adsorbent in removal of DCF from pharmaceutical waste water.
Keywords: Adsorbent; Biobased; Chitosan; Graphene oxide; Hydrogel; Pharmaceutical.
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