Evaluation of gum ghatti-g-poly(itaconic acid) magnetite nanocomposite as an adsorbent material for water purification.

A porous hydrogel nanocomposite has been made by grafting poly(itaconic acid) on the polysaccharide, gum ghatti and by embedding magnetite nanoparticles in the copolymer gel matrix. This novel functional material Ggh-g-PIA/Fe3O4 was characterized by FTIR, TGA, SEM, EDS, XRD, BET, Zeta potential measurements and VSM techniques. The nanocomposite possesses mesoporous structure with high surface area and exhibits super-paramagnetic behavior due to the presence of magnetite nanoparticles. The hydrogel nanocomposite was evaluated as an adsorbent material for removal of dyes and divalent metal ions. Significant adsorption capacities of 410.2, 387.6, 416.5 and 401.4 mg g-1 towards methylene blue, rhodamine 6G, Cu (II) and Hg (II) ions respectively were observed. The adsorption isotherms were well described by the Freundlich isotherm model and kinetic studies demonstrated the adsorption to be a pseudo second order kinetic process. Intraparticle diffusion model suggested adsorption to occur by a multi-step diffusion process. Thermodynamic studies indicated a spontaneous and endothermic adsorption. Further, the desorption study indicated the possibility of successful regeneration of the adsorbent. A high removal efficiency, recyclability, convenient recovery after use due to the magnetic nature makes this polysaccharide based nanocomposite an environment friendly adsorbent material for water purification.

Hybrid nanocomposite of kappa-carrageenan and magnetite as adsorbent material for water purification.

A novel polysaccharide based hydrogel; kappa-carrageenan grafted with N-hydroxyethylacrylamide (κC-g-PHEAA) was synthesized via microwave assisted free radical polymerization process. A hybrid nanocomposite has also been made by incorporation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles into the κC-g-PHEAA network. The materials were characterized by FTIR, TGA, XRD, SEM, BET and VSM techniques. The nanocomposite exhibited super-paramagnetic behavior. The κC-g-PHEAA and κC-g-PHEAA/Fe3O4 presented significant adsorption capacity towards cationic dyes, methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine 6G (R6G); and metal ions, Cu(II) and Hg(II) from aqueous solution. The magnetite nanoparticles enhance the adsorption characteristics of the hydrogel and enables easy separation of the adsorbent with an external magnetic field. Adsorption process is observed to follow both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models for R6G and Freundlich isotherm model for MB, Cu(II) and Hg(II). The adsorption was found to be a pseudo first order process for MB and pseudo second order process for R6G, Cu(II) and Hg(II). Thermodynamic studies have shown the adsorption of dyes and metal ions to be spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The desorption studies revealed the efficient recovery of adsorbate species. The study indicates that the synthesized adsorbents have potential applications for the removal of dyes and metal ions from wastewater.

Magnetite nanoparticle embedded Pectin-graft-poly(N-hydroxyethylacrylamide) hydrogel: Evaluation as adsorbent for dyes and heavy metal ions from waste water.

A pectin (Pec) based gel has been made by grafting N-hydroxyethylacrylamide (HEAA) on pectin using potassium peroxodisulphate as initiator and N,N-methylenebisacrylamide as crosslinker under microwave irradiation. The magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were incorporated within this gel via in situ diffusion of Fe2+ and Fe3+ followed by reaction with ammonia solution. The synthesized gel, pectin-graft-poly(N-hydroxyethylacrylamide) (Pec-g-PHEAA); and the magnetite containing composite (Pec-g-PHEAA/Fe3O4) were characterized by FTIR, TGA, XRD, BET and SEM techniques. The magnetic property measurement indicated ferromagnetic nature of the nanocomposite. The Pec-g-PHEAA and Pec-g-PHEAA/Fe3O4 systems were evaluated for removal of dye and metal ions from aqueous solution using Rhodamine 6G (R6G), a cationic dye; Cu(II) and Hg(II) ions. Both adsorbents showed significant adsorption capacity towards these species, with greater adsorption capacity in case of Pec-g-PHEAA/Fe3O4. Adsorption process is observed to follow both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models for R6G dye and Freundlich isotherm model for Cu(II) and Hg(II) ions. The adsorption was found to be a pseudo first order process for R6G and pseudo second order process for Cu(II) and Hg(II) ions. The positive values of ∆H0 and the negative values of ∆G0 indicated the adsorption process to be endothermic and spontaneous.