Adsorptive Elimination of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solution Using Magnetic Chitosan/Cellulose-Fe(III) Composite as a Bio-Sorbent

Aina Mardhia Khalid; Md Sohrab Hossain; Nor Afifah Khalil; Muzafar Zulkifli; Md Azharul Arafath; Maizatul Shima Shaharun; Rashid Ayub; Ahmad Naim Ahmad Yahaya; Norli Ismail

doi:10.3390/nano13101595

Adsorptive Elimination of Heavy Metals from Aqueous Solution Using Magnetic Chitosan/Cellulose-Fe(III) Composite as a Bio-Sorbent

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2023 May 10;13(10):1595. doi: 10.3390/nano13101595.

Authors

Aina Mardhia Khalid¹, Md Sohrab Hossain^{2

3}, Nor Afifah Khalil⁴, Muzafar Zulkifli⁴, Md Azharul Arafath⁵, Maizatul Shima Shaharun⁶, Rashid Ayub⁷, Ahmad Naim Ahmad Yahaya⁴, Norli Ismail¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), George Town 11800, Malaysia.
² Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia.
³ HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia.
⁴ Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Branch Campus Malaysian Institute of Chemical and BioEngineering Technology, Alor Gajah 78000, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh.
⁶ Institute of Contaminant Management, Centre for Contaminant Control & Utilization (CenCoU), Department of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar 32610, Malaysia.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Magnetic chitosan/cellulose nanofiber-Fe(III) [M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III)] composites were isolated for the elimination of Cr(VI), Cu(II), and Pb(II) from aqueous solution. Various analytical methods, such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were employed to determine the morphological, physicochemical, and thermal properties of the isolated M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III) composites. It was found that the M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III) composites were porous materials, and they have the potential to be implemented as an adsorbent for heavy metals removal. The adsorption efficiency of M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III) composites was determined for Cr(VI), Cu(II), and Pb(II) elimination with changing pH (pH 1.0-8.0), adsorbent doses (0.05-1.0 g), time (15-90 min), and temperature (28-80 °C). In addition, isothermal and kinetics studies were conducted to assess the adsorption behavior and mass transfer phenomena of M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III) composites as an adsorbent for Cr(VI), Cu(II) and Pb(II) elimination from aqueous solution. The outcomes of the present study reveal that the M-Ch/CNF-Fe(III) composites could be utilized as an adsorbent for the Cr(VI), Cu(II), and Pb(II) elimination from industrial effluents.

Keywords: adsorption; heavy metals removal; industrial effluent; isotherm modeling; wastewater treatment.

Grants and funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) of Malaysia for providing the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Grant No- FRGS/1/2018/STG07/UNIKL/03/1, as financial support.