Porous poly(L-lactic acid)/chitosan nanofibres for copper ion adsorption

Qasim Zia; Madeeha Tabassum; Zihan Lu; Muhammad Tauseef Khawar; Jun Song; Hugh Gong; Jinmin Meng; Zhi Li; Jiashen Li

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115343

Porous poly(L-lactic acid)/chitosan nanofibres for copper ion adsorption

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Jan 1:227:115343. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115343. Epub 2019 Sep 20.

Authors

Qasim Zia¹, Madeeha Tabassum², Zihan Lu¹, Muhammad Tauseef Khawar¹, Jun Song¹, Hugh Gong¹, Jinmin Meng¹, Zhi Li³, Jiashen Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
² School of Engineering & Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road E1 4NS, United Kingdom.
³ College of Textile and Garment, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
⁴ Department of Materials, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Jiashen.li@manchester.ac.uk.

PMID: 31590883
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115343

Abstract

Porous poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) nanofibrous membrane with the high surface area was developed by electrospinning and post acetone treatment and used as a substrate for deposition of chitosan. Chitosan was coated onto porous nanofibrous membrane via direct immersion coating method. The porous PLLA/chitosan structure provided chitosan a high surface framework to fully and effectively adsorb heavy metal ions from water and showed higher and faster ion adsorption. The composite membrane was used to eliminate copper ions from aqueous solutions. Chitosan acts as an adsorbent due to the presence of aminic and hydroxide groups which are operating sites for the capture of copper ions. The maximum adsorption capacity of copper ions reached 111.66 ± 3.22 mg/g at pH (7), interaction time (10 min) and temperature (25 °C). The adsorption kinetics of copper ions was established and was well agreed with the second-order model and Langmuir isotherm. Finally, the thermodynamic parameters were studied.

Keywords: Adsorption; Chitosan; Langmuir model; Porous PLLA nanofibres.