Fabrication of a novel biopolymer-based nanocomposite (nanoTiO(2)-chitosan-plum kernel shell) and adsorption of cationic dyes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This study investigates the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG) onto a novel biosorbent. Rapid industrialization pollutes water resources, causing serious environmental problems. Physical and chemical treatments were performed for biosorbent modification. RESULTS: In the present work, nano (n)TiO2 was inserted into chitosan (Cts)-epichlorohydrin (ECH)-plum kernel shell (PKS) and the final product was characterized by various modern techniques such as Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. Under optimized conditions, the maximum adsorption capacities of MB and MG by Cht/PKS/nTiO(2)-ECH (termed nTiO(2)-Composite) determined by the Langmuir model were 86.96 and 108.70 mg g(-1), respectively. Thermodynamic parameters such as Delta G degrees, Delta H degrees, Delta S degrees and E-a were calculated, confirming the interaction of dyes with nTiO(2)-Composite as exothermic and spontaneous. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the newly synthesized nTiO(2)-Composite has a very high performance in dye removal. (C) 2021 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).