Abstract

Chitosan coated silica as biosorbent to remove Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions

Author(s): Y.Vijaya, M.Venkata Subbaiah, A.Subba Reddy, J.Ajitha Priya, A.Krishnaiah*

This study investigated the feasibility of using chitosan coated silica as a novel type of biosorbent for Cr(VI) removal fromaqueous solution through adsorption technique. The biosorbent was characterized by FTIR spectra, TGA, porosity and surface area analyses. The removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution was studied by using the biosorbent under batch equilibrium experimental conditions. The research parameters included the effect of pH, contact time, concentration ofCr(VI) and amount of biosorbent was investigated in order to optimize the process at room temperature. The equilibrium data were used to study the kinetics of Cr(VI) removal process such as pseudo first order, pseudo second order and Weber- Morris intraparticle diffusion models. The data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. The maximum monolayer adsorption of Cr(VI) on chitosan coated silica was found to be 294.1 mg/g. The SSE and 2 analysis, used to correlate the equilibrium kinetic models and isotherms. The experimental results demonstrated that chitosan coated silica could be used as an effective biosorbent for the Cr(VI) removal.