Removal of copper from aqueous solution using polyaniline and polyaniline/ferricyanide composite

• Polyaniline and its composite were synthesized by in-situ oxidative polymerization method.
• Materials were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM and EDX.
• Adsorption properties were studied by UV–visible spectroscopy.
• Kinetics was studied with pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order and intraparticle diffusion models.
• Adsorption isotherm was studied with Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin models.

In situ oxidative polymerization method was used to synthesize the composite of polyaniline with ferricyanide ion. The polyaniline and its composite were characterized by FTIR, XRD, SEM and EDX. Comparison between the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solution using polyaniline and polyaniline/potassium ferricyanide composite was investigated by UV–visible spectroscopy. The adsorption of Cu(II) by polyaniline and polyaniline/ferricyanide composite was found to be dose dependent. The adsorption kinetic results of Cu(II) showed that adsorption reached equilibrium within 180 min in case of polyaniline and 60 min for polyaniline/ferricyanide composite and their measured adsorption capacities are 38.265 and 41.625 mg g−1, respectively. The adsorption process can be described by the pseudo-first order for the polyaniline and pseudo-second order for the polyaniline/ferricyanide ion composite. Adsorption of Cu(II) onto polyaniline and its composite agreed well with the Freundlich model, as revealed by the higher values of correlation coefficients. Thermodynamic study revealed that the adsorption process is endothermic and spontaneous in nature. The results indicate that both polyaniline and polyaniline/ ferricyanide composite could be used as efficient adsorbents for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solution.

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