Comparative studies on the removal of heavy metals ions onto cross linked chitosan-g-acrylonitrile copolymer

The graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto cross linked chitosan was carried out using ceric ammonium nitrate as an initiator. The prepared cross linked chitosan-g-acrylonitrile copolymer was characterized using FT-IR and XRD studies. The adsorption behavior of chromium(VI), copper(II) and nickel(II) ions from aqueous solution onto cross linked chitosan graft acrylonitrile copolymer was investigated through batch method. The efficiency of the adsorbent was identified from the varying the contact time, adsorbent dose and pH. The results evident that the adsorption of metal ions increases with the increase of shaking time and metal ion concentration. An optimum pH was found to be 5.0 for both Cr(VI) and Cu(II), whereas the optimum pH is 5.5 for the adsorption of Ni(II) onto cross linked chitosan-g-acrylonitrile copolymer. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were applied to describe the isotherms and isotherm constants. Adsorption isothermal data could be well interpreted by the Freundlich model. The kinetic experimental data properly correlated with the second-order kinetic model. From the above results it was concluded that the cross linked chitosan graft acrylonitrile copolymer was found to be the efficient adsorbent for removing the heavy metals under optimum conditions.