Alginate as a Sustainable and Biodegradable Material for Medical and Environmental Applications-The Case Studies.

Alginates are salts of alginic acid derived mainly from sea algae of the genus brown algae. They are also synthesized by some bacteria. They belong to negatively charged polysaccharides exhibiting some rheological properties. High plasticity and the ability to modify the structure are the reasons for their application in numerous industries. Moreover, when in contact with the living tissue, they do not trigger an immune response, and for this reason they are the most often tested materials for medical applications. The paper discusses the latest applications, including 3D bioprinting, drug delivery systems, and sorptive properties. Recognizing alginates as biomaterials, it emphasizes the necessity for precise processing and modification to industrialize them for specific uses. This review aims to provide a thorough understanding of the advancements in alginate research, underscoring their potential for innovative applications.

Facile synthesis of eco-friendly alginate-chitosan bio-adsorbent for critical raw materials adsorption: A comprehensive study.

Sustainable management of critical raw materials is of paramount importance to ensure a steady supply and reduce environmental impact. The application of newly synthesized and environmentally friendly ALG@CS material as a bio-adsorbent for the effective rare earth elements removal from aqueous solution has been presented. The synthesized material underwent FTIR, XPS, EDX, and SEM analysis to determine its suitability for metal uptake. To evaluate the adsorption capacity of ALG@CS for rare earth elements several factors were taken into consideration. These factors included alginate:chitosan ratios, bead size, pH level, composite mass, interaction time, metal ion concentration, and temperature, being all varied during the batch mode evaluation process. Under the optimal conditions, the maximum adsorption capacities were found to be 145.90 mg La(III)/g, 168.44 mg Ce(III)/g, 132.51 mg Pr(III)/g, 128.40 mg Nd(III)/g, 154.36 mg Sm(III)/g, and 165.10 mg Ho(III)/g. The equilibrium data fits well with non-linear three-parameter Sips and Redlich-Peterson isotherm models. The PSO model finds the highest process suitability. The synthesized ALG@CS bio-adsorbent showed excellent regenerative capacity in ten cycles, making it a suitable adsorbent for rare earth elements uptake. The unique bio-adsorbents combination allows for efficient critical raw materials adsorption providing a promising solution for their recovery and recycling.

Innovative Green Alginate-Cellulose Composite for Light Lanthanides: Experimental Design and Comprehensive Studies on Kinetics, Equilibrium, Thermodynamics, and Reusability.

Nowadays, there is a great interest in efficient adsorbent development due to the recent demand for lanthanides, which are widely used in high-tech technology. Alginates, owing to their natural occurrence, gel formation capability, and safety, could be promising feasible adsorbents for lanthanide removal. This study proposes the alginate-cellulose composite as an ecological, sustainable adsorbent for light lanthanide sorption. The structure, morphology, qualitative and quantitative compositions, average diameter, and pHpzc of the composite were discussed in great detail. Using the batch approach, sorption trials were performed to evaluate the metal sorption performance. The maximum lanthanide accumulation was attained at pH 5.0 and a dosage of 0.05 g. The uptake kinetics are successfully explained by the Ho and McKay model, whereas the equilibrium data is best represented by the Langmuir equation. The presence of Cl-, NO3 -, SO4 2-, Ni(II), and Co(II) did not have any impact on the adsorption capacity. In turn, the presence of Fe(III) ions led to a 15 % reduction in the adsorption. The lanthanide ions were eluted from the adsorbent following the treatment with 0.1 M HNO3. The adsorbent retained over 95 % of its initial adsorption capacity after 6 series of sorption/desorption studies.

Metagenomic Analysis of the Composition of Microbial Consortia Involved in Spruce Degradation over Time in Bialowieza Natural Forest.

Deadwood plays an important role in forest ecology; its degradation and, therefore, carbon assimilation is carried out by fungi and bacteria. To quantify the abundance and distribution of microbial taxa inhabiting dead spruce logs fallen over a span of 50 years and the soil beneath, we used taxonomic profiling with NGS sequencing of hypervariable DNA fragments of ITS1 and 16S V3-V4, respectively. The analysis of sequencing data revealed a high level of diversity in microbial communities participating in the degradation of spruce logs. Differences in the relative abundance of microbial taxa between the samples of the wood that died in 1974 and 2014, and of the soil in its immediate vicinity, were visible, especially at the genus level. Based on the Lefse analysis significantly higher numbers of classified bacterial taxa were observed in the wood and soil samples from 2014 (wood: 1974-18 and 2014-28 taxa; soil: 1974-8 and 2014-41 taxa) while the number of classified fungal taxa was significantly higher in the wood and soil samples from 1974 (wood: 1974-17 and 2014-9 taxa; soil: 1974-57 and 2014-28 taxa). Most of the bacterial and fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) unique to wood were found in the samples from 1974, while those unique to soil were detected in the samples from 2014. The ATR-FTIR method supported by CHN analysis revealed physicochemical changes in deadwood induced by the activity of fungal and bacterial organisms.

Fixed-Bed Column Adsorption Studies: Comparison of Alginate-Based Adsorbents for La(III) Ions Recovery.

The paper investigated the adsorption of the packed-bed column with the alginate-based adsorbents (ALG-based adsorbents) such as alginate-biochar, alginate-clinoptilolite, alginate-lignin, and alginate-cellulose for La(III) ions' removal. Fixed-bed adsorption studies with various alginate-based adsorbents were carried out and compared to the La(III) ions adsorption. The columns were filled with ALG-based adsorbent beads of approximately 1.1 ± 0.005 mm spherical shapes. The effects of the inlet concentrations on the breakthrough curves were studied in terms of the adsorption performance of the ALG-based adsorbents. The experimental data were correlated with the Adams-Bohart, Yoon-Nelson, Thomas, and Wolborska models to determine the best operational parameters. Based on the comparison of R2 values, the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models were found to be more suitable than the Adams-Bohart and Wolborska models. In the desorption study, the ALG-based adsorbents packed columns showed the maximum desorption of La(III) just after passing 100 cm3 of 1 mol/dm3 HCl. Overall, the results show that ALG-based adsorbents could be used for continuous recovery of La(III) ions from aqueous solutions and were not only cost-effective but also environmentally friendly.

Green Extractants in Assisting Recovery of REEs: A Case Study.

The recycling of REEs from the end of life (EoL) products, such as nickel metal hydride batteries (NiMH), offers great opportunities for their supply in Europe. In the presented paper, the application of 'green' extractants such as citric (CA), metatartaric (TA), and ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS) (also with H2O2 addition) for the recovery of REEs was studied. The studies were conducted considering the effects of the phase contact time, the initial concentration of CA, TA, and EDDS, as well as H2O2, pH, and temperature. It was found that the addition of TA to the CA solution meant that higher rates of metal ion binding and, thus, leaching was observed. The optimal conditions were obtained in the system: CA-TA and H2O2 for the concentration 0.6M-0.3 M-2%.

Determination of the Ni(II) Ions Sorption Mechanism on Dowex PSR2 and Dowex PSR3 Ion Exchangers Based on Spectroscopic Studies.

This paper estimates the suitability of the strongly basic anion exchangers, Dowex PSR2 and Dowex PSR3, as sorbents of nickel ions in aqueous solutions. These actions are aimed at searching for new solutions due to the growing discharge of nickel into wastewaters, primarily due to its addition to steel. The nickel sorption experiments were conducted under static conditions and resulted in the optimization of pH, phase contact time, initial solution concentration, and temperature. The next step was to calculate the kinetic, isothermal, and thermodynamic parameters. Moreover, the ion exchangers were characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and CHN elemental analysis. It was found that the sorption process was most effective at pH 6 after 240 min and at the temperature of 293 K. The values of the thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption was exothermic and spontaneous. The physicochemical analyses combined with the experimental research enabled determination of the sorption mechanism of Ni(II) ions.

Quality of Phosphate Rocks from Various Deposits Used in Wet Phosphoric Acid and P-Fertilizer Production.

Phosphate rocks (PRs) play a crucial role in ensuring the availability of phosphorous for the world's food needs. PRs are used to manufacture phosphoric acid in the wet process as well as P-fertilizers. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of PRs from Djebel Onk (Algeria), Khneifiss (Syria), Negev (Israel), Bou Craa (Morocco), and Khouribga (Morocco) are discussed in this study. PRs were characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (CVAAS), ion chromatography (IC), and X-ray diffraction (XRD), as well as gravimetric and potentiometric methods. All PRs were mainly composed of CaO, P2O5, SiO2, F, SO3, Na2O, MgO, Al2O3, Fe2O3, SrO, and K2O at the level of wt.%. The P2O5 content accounted for 28.7-31.2%, which indicates that these are beneficial rocks to a marketable product. The degree of PR purity expressed by the minor elements ratio index (MER index) varied from 2.46% to 10.4%, and the CaO/P2O5 weight ratio from 1.6 to 1.9. In addition, the occurrence of trace elements such as As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Ti, V, U, and Zn, as well as Cr(VI) and Cl ions at the level of mg∙kg-1 was found. Since PRs will be used to produce P-fertilizers, their composition was compared with the regulatory parameters set up by EU Regulation 2019/1009 related to the heavy metals (As, Cd, Pb, Ni, Hg, Cu, Zn) and Cr(VI) contents in inorganic fertilizers. The heavy metals and Cr(VI) content in all PRs did not exceed the limit values. XRD analysis revealed that fluorapatite, hydroxyapatite, carbonate fluorapatite, and carbonate hydroxyapatite were the dominant minerals. The accuracy and precision of the used methods were evaluated by analysis of standard reference materials (SRM) for Western Phosphate Rock (NIST 694). The recovery was 85.3% for U and 109% for K2O, and the RSD ranged from 0.67% to 12.8%.

Improved Soil Amendment by Integrating Metal Complexes and Biodegradable Complexing Agents in Superabsorbents.

The superabsorbents' application as materials for the preparation of modern mineral fertilizers of controlled activity is presented. Under the static conditions, the commercial acrylic-based Agro® Hydrogel was used as a sorbent for Cu(II), Fe(III), Mn(II), and Zn(II) ions in the presence of three biodegradable complexing agents of the new generation: (N-1,2-dicarboxyethyl)-D,L-aspartate acid (IDHA), N,N-ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS) and N,N-bis(carboxymethyl) glutamic acid (GLDA). The ions and complexes concentrations were determined by the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES). The characterization of hydrogel before and after the adsorption process was made using the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), surface area determination (ASAP), scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) as well as the thermogravimetric (TGA) methods. The influence of the phase contact time, initial concentration, and pH on the adsorption capacities was investigated. The kinetic and adsorption parameters were determined. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, and Temkin adsorption models were applied to describe the experimental data. The Langmuir isotherm model accurately characterized the equilibrium process. The adsorption process was fast, and it reached equilibrium after 60 min of the phase contact time. The research on the adsorption of Cu(II), Fe(III), Mn(II), and Zn(II) onto Agro® Hydrogel with IDHA, EDDS, and GLDA indicates that these complexing agents improve process efficiency.

Chitosan-Modified Biochars to Advance Research on Heavy Metal Ion Removal: Roles, Mechanism and Perspectives.

The chitosan-modified biochars BC-CS 1-1, BC-CS 2-1 and BC-CS 4-1 were subjected to the synthetic application of biochar from agriculture waste and chitosan for the adsorption of Cu(II), Cd(II), Zn(II), Co(II) and Pb(II) ions from aqueous media. The results displayed a heterogeneous, well-developed surface. Additionally, the surface functional groups carboxyl, hydroxyl and phenol, determining the sorption mechanism and confirming the thermal stability of the materials, were present. The sorption evaluation was carried out as a function of the sorbent dose, pH, phase contact time, initial concentration of the solution and temperature. The maximum value of qt for Pb(II)-BC-CS 4-1, 32.23 mg/g (C0 200 mg/L, mass 0.1 g, pH 5, 360 min), was identified. Nitric acid was applied for the sorbent regeneration with a yield of 99.13% for Pb(II)-BC-CS 2-1. The produced sorbents can be used for the decontamination of water by means of the cost-effective and high-performance method.

Insight into the removal of vanadium ions from model and real wastewaters using surface grafted zirconia-based adsorbents: Batch experiments, equilibrium and mechanism study.

This study concerns the fabrication of CTAB- and N,N-dimethyltetradecylamine-grafted zirconia and evaluation of their ability to adsorb vanadium ions. The effectiveness of ZrO2 functionalization and the different nature of the modifiers used were confirmed by differences in the porosity (ZrO2: SBET = 347 m2/g; ZrO2-CTAB: SBET = 375 m2/g, ZrO2-NH+: SBET = 155 m2/g), types of functional groups, and isoelectric points (the ZrO2 and CTAB-modified samples have IEPs = 3.8 and 3.9, ZrO2-NH+ has IEP = 7.1) of the prepared adsorbents. The designed materials were tested in batch adsorption experiments involving the removal of vanadium ions from model wastewaters at various process parameters, among which pH proved to be the most important. Based on equilibrium and kinetic evaluations, it was proved that the sorption of V(V) ions followed pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models, and the data were better fitted to the Langmuir model, suggesting the following order of the sorbents in terms of favorability for V(V) ion adsorption: ZrO2-NH+ > ZrO2 > ZrO2-CTAB. The estimated maximum monolayer capacity of ZrO2-NH+ for V(V) (87.72 mg/g) was the highest among the tested materials. Additionally, it was confirmed that adsorption of V(V) ions onto synthesized materials is a heterogeneous, exothermic, and spontaneous reaction, as evidenced by the calculated values of thermodynamic parameters. The key goals included the transfer of experimental findings obtained using model solutions to the adsorption of V(V) ions from solutions arising from the leaching process of spent catalysts. The highest adsorption efficiencies of 70.8% and 47.5% were recorded for the ZrO2-NH+ material in acidic solution; this may be related to the protonization of -NH+ groups, which favors the sorption of V(V) ions. Based on desorption tests as well as the results of infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, irrespective of the process conditions, the physical nature of the adsorbent/adsorbate interaction was confirmed.

Noncytotoxic zinc-doped nanohydroxyapatite-based bone scaffolds with strong bactericidal, bacteriostatic, and antibiofilm activity.

Development of bone scaffolds that are nontoxic to eukaryotic cells, while revealing bactericidal activity still remains a huge challenge for the scientific community. It should be noted that only bacteriostatic (the ability of the biomaterial to inhibit the growth of bacteria) and bactericidal (the ability to kill >99.9 % bacteria) activities have clinical importance. Unfortunately, many material scientists are confused with the microbiological definition of antibacterial action and consider biomaterials causing reduction in colony-forming units (CFUs) by 50-80 % as promising antibacterial implants. The aim of this study was to synthesize three variants of Zn-doped hydroxyapatite (HA) nanopowder, which were characterized by different content of Zn2+ and served as a powder phase for the production of novel macroporous chitosan/agarose/nanoHA biomaterials with high antibacterial activity. Within this study, it was proven that the scaffold with a low zinc content (doping level 0.03 mol for 1 mol of HA; 0.2 wt%) revealed the gradual and slow release of the Zn2+ ions, preventing against accumulation of high and toxic concentration of therapeutic agents and providing prolonged antibacterial activity. Moreover, developed biomaterial was nontoxic to human osteoblasts and showed anti-biofilm properties, bactericidal activity (> 99.9 % of bacteria killed) against Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli, significant antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (98.5 % of bacteria killed), and also bacteriostatic activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Thus, the developed Zn-doped HA-based bone scaffold has excellent antibacterial properties without toxicity against eukaryotic cells, being a promising biomaterial for biomedical applications to repair bone defects and prevent post-surgery infections.

Adsorption of vanadium (V) ions from the aqueous solutions on different biomass-derived biochars.

The paper presents the results of the studies on the vanadium (V) ions removal from the aqueous solutions in the adsorption process on biochars from different biomass types (cow manure BC1, wet distiller grains BC2, spent mushroom substrates BC3). The adsorbents were characterized by means of the SEM-EDS, FTIR, XRD and XPS techniques. The influence of adsorbent type and basic process parameters, such as pH and metal ion concentration in aqueous phase, adsorbent dose and time of contact of phases on the efficiency of V(V) was determined. Based on the obtained results, the mechanism and kinetics of the adsorption processes occurring on the biochar originating from the wet distiller grains as adsorbents with the greatest affinity for the V(V) ions were characterized, using isotherm models of Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich and pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order as well as intraparticle diffusion kinetic models. Under the constant process conditions (pH = 3.0; m = 0.5 g; c0 = 50 mg/L) the order of V(V) ions removal from aqueous solutions was as follows: BC2 > BC1 = BC3. The biochar BC2 exhibited the maximum sorption capacity of 1.61 mg V(V)/g. The experimental kinetic data show the adsorption course according to the pseudo-second order model.

Fabrication, Characterization and Evaluation of an Alginate-Lignin Composite for Rare-Earth Elements Recovery.

The recent increase in interest in rare earth elements is due to their increasing use in many areas of life. However, along with their increasing popularity, the problem of their natural resources availability arises. In this study, an alginate-lignin composite (ALG-L) was fabricated and tested for adsorptive abilities of the rare earth elements (La(III), Ce(III), Pr(III), and Nd(III)) from aqueous solutions. The characterization of the newly synthetized calcium alginate-lignin composite was performed using ATR/FT-IR, SEM, EDX, OM, AFM, XRD, BET, sieve analysis and pHpzc measurements. The adsorption mechanism of the ALG5L1 composite for REEs was analyzed through a series of kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic adsorption experiments. Under the optimum sorption conditions, i.e., sorbent mass 0.1 g, pH 5.0, temperature 333 K, the maximum adsorption capacities of the ALG5L1 composite for La(III), Ce(III), Pr(III), and Nd(III) reached 109.56, 97.97, 97.98, and 98.68 mg/g, respectively. The desorption studies indicate that the new calcium alginate-lignin composite is characterized by good recycling properties and can be also reused. To sum up the advantages of low cost, easy synthesis, high adsorption efficiencies and reusability indicate that the ALG5L1 composite has great application perspectives for REEs recovery.

Application of Ion Exchangers with the N-Methyl-D-Glucamine Groups in the V(V) Ions Adsorption Process.

The adsorption capacities of ion exchangers with N-methyl-D-glucamine (NMDG) groups (Amberlite IRA 743, Lewatit MK 51, Purolite S110 and Purolite S108) relative to V(V) ions were tested in a batch system, taking into account the influence of various parameters, such as the adsorbent mass (0.05-0.20 g), phase contact time (1-240 min), initial concentration (10-150 mg/L), and temperature (293-333 K), as well as in a column system where the variable operating parameters were initial concentration (50, 100 mg/L), bed volume (10, 100 mL) and flow rate (0.6, 6 mL/min). Pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, intraparticle diffusion and Boyd models were used to describe the kinetic studies. The best fit was obtained for the pseudo-second order model. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin adsorption models were used to describe the equilibrium data to acquire better knowledge about the adsorption mechanism. The thermodynamic parameters were also calculated, which showed that the studied processes are endothermic, spontaneous and thermodynamically favorable. The physicochemical properties of the ion exchangers were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption analyses, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). The point of zero charge (pHPZC) was also determined.

Arsenate removal on the iron oxide ion exchanger modified with Neodymium(III) ions.

In this study the iron oxide ion exchanger with the quaternary ammonium groups, Ferrix A33E was modified with neodymium (III) ions in order to obtain the new material Ferrix A33E-Nd(III) characterized by greater sorption efficiency of arsenate(V) ions. A33E-Nd(III) was described by various techniques including scanning electron microscopy SEM, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FTIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS. The point of zero charge, pHPZC was also determined. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the arsenate(V) sorption were calculated. The experimental data was fitted to the four isotherm models - Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich and Halsey. Kinetic and equilibrium studies allowed to get to know the behaviour of arsenate(V) ions during the sorption on A33E-Nd(III). The obtained material A33E-Nd(III)- was found to possess a larger maximum sorption capacity than A33E, great stability and the possibility of regeneration at least 3 times without a significant decrease in efficiency. This allows for the complete removal of As(V) ions from a solution with a concentration of 50 mg/dm3 in just 30 min. The Nd(III)-modification improved the sorption properties of the tested ion exchanger.

Functionalization of Zeolite NaP1 for Simultaneous Acid Red 18 and Cu(II) Removal.

The efficiency of azo dye Acid Red 18 (AR18) and Cu(II) ions simultaneous removal from an aqueous solution on NaP1CS and NaP1H was investigated, taking into account the effect of the phase contact time, pH, initial concentration, temperature, and interfering ions presence. Zeolite denoted as NaP1CS was modified by chitosan (CS) and zeolite denoted as NaP1H was modified by hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA). In order to characterize sorption properties of NaP1CS, the obtained sorbent was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nitrogen adsorption/desorption (ASAP). The kinetic parameters were determined by means of the pseudo first order (PFO), pseudo second order (PSO), and intraparticle diffusion (IPD) kinetic models. To present the adsorption data, three different isotherm models (Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich) were used. The desorption process was also examined. It was found that for sorbent NaP1CS the pseudo second order (PSO) kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm fitted best the experimental data. Moreover, it was noted that the acidic pH is appropriate to achieve the best sorption properties of NaP1CS for Cu(II) and NaP1H for AR18 and Cu(II). The thermodynamic parameters indicate an endothermic process. The most effective solution for the desorption process was found to be 1 M HCl. The results indicate that simultaneous removal of dye AR18 and Cu(II) on modified zeolite NaP1CS or NaP1H is possible and proceeds with a very good efficiency. The obtained zeolites could effectively adsorb AR18 an Cu(II) simultaneously, but their adsorption abilities were rather different.

Superabsorbents and Their Application for Heavy Metal Ion Removal in the Presence of EDDS.

Three acrylic-based superabsorbents-TerraHydrogel®Aqua (THA), Zeba®Hydrogel (ZH) and Agro®Hydrogel (AH) were used to investigate the influence of chemical conditions on kinetic and adsorption behavior towards metal ions in the presence of a chelating agent of a new generation called ethylenediamine-N,N'-disuccinic acid (EDDS). The effects of relevant parameters-mainly including those of sorbent dose, pH of the solution and initial concentration of Cu(II), Zn(II), Mn(II) and Fe(III) complexes with EDDS as well as phase contact time and temperature-on the adsorption efficiency were studied in detail by the static method. The experimental data were also characterized by kinetic and adsorption parameters obtained based on the Langmuir and Freundlich models of sorption as well as the Lagergren, Ho and McKay and Weber-Morris models.

Application of Modern Research Methods for the Physicochemical Characterization of Ion Exchangers.

Ion exchange technique as the reversible exchange of ions between the substrate and the surrounding medium can be an effective way of removing traces of ion impurities from the waters and wastewaters and obtaining a product of ultrapure quality. Therefore, it can be used in analytical chemistry, hydrometallurgy, purification and separation of metal ions, radioisotopes and organic compounds, and it also finds great application in water treatment and pollution control. In the presented paper, the new trends for ion exchanger characteristics determination and application are presented. Special attention is paid to the ion exchangers with multifunctionality for heavy metal ions removal. They show superior actions such as sorption capacity values with excellent resistance to fouling and the possibility of application in the co-current or modern packed bed counter-current systems, as well as for the condensate polishing or the conventional mixed bed systems in combination with other resins. The results of the paper are expected to help researchers to establish a powerful strategy to find a suitable ion exchanger for heavy metal ions removal from waters and wastewaters. It is important because the best ion exchangers are selected for a specific application during laboratory tests taking into account the composition of the feed solution, pH, type of ion exchangers and then the column breakthrough tests. Therefore, the optical profilometry and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy can prove beneficial for this purpose in the case of three different ion exchangers such as Dowex M 4195, Amberlite IRA 743 and Purolite Arsen Xnp.

Medical Plant Extract Purification from Cadmium(II) Using Modified Thermoplastic Starch and Ion Exchangers.

Pure compounds extracted and purified from medical plants are crucial for preparation of the herbal products applied in many countries as drugs for the treatment of diseases all over the world. Such products should be free from toxic heavy metals; therefore, their elimination or removal in all steps of production is very important. Hence, the purpose of this paper was purification of an extract obtained from Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo and cadmium removal using thermoplastic starch (S1), modified TPS with poly (butylene succinate); 25% of TPS + 75% PBS (S2); 50% of TPS + 50% PLA (S3); and 50% of TPS + 50% PLA with 5% of hemp fibers (S4), as well as ion exchangers of different types, e.g., Lewatit SP112, Purolite S940, Amberlite IRC747, Amberlite IRC748, Amberlite IRC718, Lewatit TP207, Lewatit TP208, and Purolite S930. This extract is used in cancer treatment in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis with differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, gel permeation chromatography, surface analysis, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and point of zero charge analysis were used for sorbent and adsorption process characterization, as well as for explanation of the Cd(II) sorption mechanism.