Efficient Removal of Copper Ion from Aqueous Solution using Crosslinked Chitosan Grafted with Polyaniline

A  high-performance adsorbent  was produced by grafting  polyaniline onto biopolymer chitosan.  The morphological  structure  of  cross-linked  chitosan  grafted  with  polyaniline  was  studied  by  scanning electron  microscopy.  Functional  groups  of  the  synthesized  adsorbent  were  identified  by  Fourier- transform  infrared.  The  performance  of  the  prepared  adsorbent  was  examined  by  batch adsorption experiments. The adsorption studies were performed with different operating parameters such as contact time,  initial  pH,  adsorbent  dosage  and  temperature.  To  evaluate  adsorption  isotherms,  Freundlich, Langmuir and Dubinin-Radushkevich models were fitted to obtained data and the isotherm parameters were determined. Kinetics of the adsorption was studied by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models. It was observed that the obtained data were fitted more accurately with the pseudo-second-order model than the pseudo-first-order model. At optimum conditions, the maximum capacity and the removal efficiency  of  copper  ions  adsorption  were  obtained  131.58  mg/g  and  92.5%,  respectively.  The regeneration  efficiency  and  the  removal  efficiency  of  regenerated  adsorbent  were  97.7  and  90.4%, respectively.  The  results  revealed the  adsorbent has a great potential  for  adsorption of Cu  (II)  from aqueous solution