Fabrication and Characterization of Magnetic Cellulose-Chitosan-Alginate Composite Hydrogel Bead Bio-Sorbent

Aida Syafiqah Abdul Rahman; Ahmad Noor Syimir Fizal; Nor Afifah Khalil; Ahmad Naim Ahmad Yahaya; Md Sohrab Hossain; Muzafar Zulkifli

doi:10.3390/polym15112494

Fabrication and Characterization of Magnetic Cellulose-Chitosan-Alginate Composite Hydrogel Bead Bio-Sorbent

Polymers (Basel). 2023 May 29;15(11):2494. doi: 10.3390/polym15112494.

Authors

Aida Syafiqah Abdul Rahman¹, Ahmad Noor Syimir Fizal², Nor Afifah Khalil¹, Ahmad Naim Ahmad Yahaya³, Md Sohrab Hossain⁴, Muzafar Zulkifli³

Affiliations

¹ Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Branch Campus Malaysian Institute of Chemical and BioEngineering Technology, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia.
² Centre for Sustainability of Ecosystem & Earth Resources (Pusat ALAM) Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuh Persiaran Tun Khalil Yaakob, 26300 Gambang, Pahang, Malaysia.
³ Green Chemistry and Sustainability Cluster, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Branch Campus Malaysian Institute of Chemical and BioEngineering Technology, 78000 Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia.
⁴ HICoE-Centre for Biofuel and Biochemical Research, Institute of Self-Sustainable Building, Fundamental and Applied Sciences Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia.

Abstract

The implementation of inorganic adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents generates secondary waste. Therefore, scientists and environmentalists are looking for environmentally friendly adsorbents isolated from biobased materials for the efficient removal of heavy metals from industrial effluents. This study aimed to fabricate and characterize an environmentally friendly composite bio-sorbent as an initiative toward greener environmental remediation technology. The properties of cellulose, chitosan, magnetite, and alginate were exploited to fabricate a composite hydrogel bead. The cross linking and encapsulation of cellulose, chitosan, alginate, and magnetite in hydrogel beads were successfully conducted through a facile method without any chemicals used during the synthesis. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis verified the presence of element signals of N, Ca, and Fe on the surface of the composite bio-sorbents. The appearance and peak's shifting at 3330-3060 cm^-1 in the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of the composite cellulose-magnetite-alginate, chitosan-magnetite-alginate, and cellulose-chitosan-magnetite-alginate suggested that there are overlaps of O-H and N-H and weak interaction of hydrogen bonding with the Fe₃O₄ particles. Material degradation, % mass loss, and thermal stability of the material and synthesized composite hydrogel beads were determined through thermogravimetric analysis. The onset temperature of the composite cellulose-magnetite-alginate, chitosan-magnetite-alginate, and cellulose-chitosan-magnetite-alginate hydrogel beads were observed to be lower compared to raw-material cellulose and chitosan, which could be due to the formation of weak hydrogen bonding resulting from the addition of magnetite Fe₃O₄. The higher mass residual of cellulose-magnetite-alginate (33.46%), chitosan-magnetite-alginate (37.09%), and cellulose-chitosan-magnetite-alginate (34.40%) compared to cellulose (10.94%) and chitosan (30.82%) after degradation at a temperature of 700 °C shows that the synthesized composite hydrogel beads possess better thermal stability, owing to the addition of magnetite and the encapsulation in the alginate hydrogel beads.

Keywords: adsorption; alginate; bio-sorbent; cellulose; chitosan; hydrogel beads; magnetite; morphology.

Grants and funding

FRGS/1/2018/STG07/UNIKL/03/1/Ministry of Higher Education