Carbon fiber embedded chitosan/PVA composites for decontamination of endocrine disruptor bisphenol-A from water

•CF was successfully embedded into CHT-PVA matrix.•Bisphenol-A adsorption capacity of composite was found higher than raw CHT-PVA.•CHT-PVA/CF/3 composite achieved 97.6% adsorption of bisphenol A.•The Freundlich and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm models fitted better to the data.•Adsorption mechanism was examined with XPS analysis.

Microporous carbon fibers (CFs) were in situ embedded in chitosan‒polyvinyl alcohol (CHT-PVA) polymer matrix to produce an approximately 10 mm-thick carbon-polymer composite film (CHT-PVA/CF). The composite films were prepared with different CF:(CHT-PVA) ratios of 0.5-3.0 (w/w) and were used as novel adsorbents for the remediation of bisphenol A (BPA) from water. The composites were characterized by SEM, TGA-DTG, FTIR and XPS analysis. When CF was introduced into the matrix of CHT-PVA, the BPA removal performance increased from 5.8% to 97.6%. The adsorption performances of CHT-PVA/CF composites were investigated with respect to solution pH, temperature and time. The optimal pH for maximum adsorption was found as 6.0. The Freundlich and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm models were fitted to the equilibrium data better than the Langmuir model. According to the kinetics results, the equilibrium time of CHT-PVA/CF composite film was found 2 h and the kinetic data were well described by the pseudo-second-order equation. After saturated adsorption, composite film can be easily regenerated and reused within five cycles.

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