Enhanced chromium (VI) adsorption using nanosized chitosan fibers tailored by electrospinning

Stacked chitosan nanofibers with an average diameter of 75 nm were successfully produced by electrospinning using 5 wt% chitosan in acetic acid as the spinning solution. The fibers were then cross-linked with glutaraldehyde to remove chromium [Cr(VI)] from water via static adsorption. It was found that the adsorption correlated well with pseudo-second order kinetic model, and followed a mixed isotherm of Freundlich and Langmuir. The maximum nanofibers adsorption capacity was 131.58 mg/g, more than doubled that of chitosan powders. Common co-ions such as Cl−, NO3−, Na+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ had little or no effect on the adsorption but SO42− was an exception. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectrophotometer analyses indicated that both amino and hydroxyl groups of chitosan were engaged in the adsorption.