Defluoridation of water using chitosan assisted ethylenediamine functionalized synthetic polymeric blends

• Chitosan @ synthetic resins were used for the removal of F− for the first time.
• CS@AN/DVB/VBC-ED blend were prepared and characterized.
• Maximum sorption capacity was observed at 30 min contact time.
• NH3+ group in the polymer matrix responsible for the removal of fluoride.
• The synergistic effect of this blend plays a better defluoridating agent.

In this paper, a new kind of approach undertakes for the synthesis of novel chitosan (CS) blended with ethylenediamine (ED) functionalized synthetic polymers viz., acrylonitrile/divinylbenzene/vinylbenzyl chloride (CS@AN/DVB/VBC-ED) and styrene/divinylbenzene/vinylbenzyl chloride (CS@ST/DVB/VBC-ED) for defluoridation of water. Under batch mode, various influencing parameters like shaking time, pH, competitor ions and temperature were optimized. The fluoride removal was reasonably explained using Freundlich, Langmuir and D-R isotherms. The thermodynamic parameters viz., ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° indicates the nature of the fluoride sorption with the sorbents. The FT-IR, XRD and SEM with EDAX analysis were used to study the fluoride adsorption of CS@AN/DVB/VBC-ED and CS@ST/DVB/VBC-ED blends. The thermal stability of both the sorbents was tested using TGA/DSC analysis. Studies were also conducted to test the potential application of the prepared polymeric blends for fluoride removal from field water collected from the nearby fluoride endemic area.

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