Comparative adsorption of emerging contaminants in water by functional designed magnetic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/chitosan hydrogels

Aijiao Zhou; Wangwei Chen; Lei Liao; Pengchao Xie; Tian C Zhang; Xumeng Wu; Xiaonan Feng

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.183

Comparative adsorption of emerging contaminants in water by functional designed magnetic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/chitosan hydrogels

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jun 25:671:377-387. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.183. Epub 2019 Mar 14.

Authors

Aijiao Zhou¹, Wangwei Chen¹, Lei Liao¹, Pengchao Xie¹, Tian C Zhang², Xumeng Wu¹, Xiaonan Feng³

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² Department of Civil Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Omaha, NE 68182, USA.
³ School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: xnfeng@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 30933794
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.183

Abstract

The magnetic poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)/chitosan hydrogel with interpenetrating network (IPN) structure was designed based on the functional groups of targeted emerging contaminants, represented by hydrophilic sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) and hydrophobic bisphenol A (BPA). The average particle size, specific surface area, and total pore volume of the hydrogel were turned out to be 103.7 μm, 60.70 m²/g and 0.0672 cm³/g, respectively. Adsorption results indicated that the maximum adsorption capacity occurred at the pH where SMZ was anionic and BPA was uncharged. When the adsorption temperature increased from 25 °C to 35 °C, the amount of adsorbed SMZ hardly changed, but that of BPA increased by two times. The adsorption capacity of the binary system (i.e., with both SMZ and BPA) was almost the same as that of the single system, indicating that simultaneous adsorption of SMZ and BPA was achieved. The adsorption equilibrium was reached quickly (within 5 min) for both SMZ and BPA. For adsorption isotherm, the Freundlich model fitted well for SMZ at 25, 35 and 45 °C. However, the adsorption of BPA exhibited the sigmoidally shaped isotherm at 25 °C with the Slips model fitting well, and both the Freundlich isotherm and the Slips isotherm fitted the data well at 35 °C and 45 °C, suggesting that the adsorption force was initially weak but greatly enhanced with an increase in adsorbate concentration or ambient temperature. The main adsorption mechanism was inferred to be electrostatic interactions for SMZ, and hydrophobic interactions as well as hydrogen bonding for BPA. The hydrogel adsorbent maintained favorable adsorption capacity for BPA after five adsorption-desorption cycles. These findings may provide a strategy for designing high performance adsorbents that can remove both hydrophilic and hydrophobic organic contaminants in the aquatic environment.

Keywords: Adsorption; Chitosan; Emerging contaminants; Hydrogel; Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide); Regeneration.