Performance study on sequestration of copper ions from contaminated water using newly synthesized high effective chitosan coated magnetic nanoparticles

Chitosan coated magnetic nanoparticles (CMNP), a novel adsorbent active under a robust range of environmental conditions of pH and temperature have been employed as an effective adsorbent for the removal of copper ions from the wastewater and later which can be easily separated from the aqueous solution via magnetic separation. The novelty of the present research is the incorporation of the growing field of nanotechnology in wastewater treatment by adsorption as well as use of magnetic particles as a carrier for the adsorbent for more effective separation of the adsorbent from wastewater, by the mere application of an external magnetic field. The CMNP particles have been characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy dispersive X-Ray analysis (EDAX), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analyses. The adsorption experimental data were analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, Koble-Corrigan, Sips, Toth, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. Thermodynamic parameters were also evaluated and the sorption process was found to be energetically feasible, spontaneous and exothermic in nature, suggesting that the adsorption of Cu(II) ions onto CMNP was presumably physisorption. The spent adsorbent can be easily regenerated by treating it with 0.1 N HCl/NaOH solution followed by vigorous agitation.