DOI: https://doi.org/10.55373/mjchem.v26i5.112

Keywords: Chitosan; crosslinked; nickel removal; adsorption; aqueous solution

Abstract

Heavy metals like nickel, chromium and copper have been excessively released into the environment due to rapid industrialization, which can cause a major global concern. There have been numerous studies done to remove heavy metals using various adsorbents such as chitosan. This study reports glutaraldehyde-crosslinked chitosan (GCC) beads as highly efficient bioadsorbents for the separation of nickel ions (Ni (II)) from aqueous solutions. With increasing the extent of glutaraldehyde-crosslinking, the GCC beads showed enhanced adsorption selectivity and capacity toward Ni (II). Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) have been utilized for the characterization of the synthesized bioadsorbents. The effectiveness of GCC for Ni (II) removal in an aqueous solution at various parameters has been evaluated by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). The effects of parameters namely pH, agitation speed, contact time, adsorbent dose, and initial metal ion concentration were optimized by batch experiments. Under the optimum conditions, the adsorbent shows 91.97% for Ni (II) removal percent with good reusability till third cycle. Kinetic, isothermal, and thermodynamic analyses have been studied to have deep insights into the mechanism of Ni (II) on the synthesized adsorbents.