Fabrication of hybrid chitosan encapsulated magnetic-kaolin beads for adsorption of phosphate and nitrate ions from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Phosphate and nitrate are commonly used industrial and agricultural nutrients that are of great anxiety because of their ubiquitous existence in water and wastewater sources and association with harmful health effects. Herein, we aimed to fabricate a novel and environmental-friendly chitosan encapsulated magnetic kaolin beads for the first time and applied for the adsorption of phosphate and nitrate ions from water. The physico-chemical properties of MK-chitosan beads were established by XRD, FTIR, and TGA-DSC techniques. Surface area (BET) analysis shows that MK-chitosan beads have a specific surface area of 2.12 m2/g. Surface morphology and elemental studies (SEM and EDAX) revealed the porous nature of MK-chitosan beads. The synthesized bead material employed as selective and effective adsorbent material for the remediation of phosphate and nitrate from water/ wastewater. The impact of external adsorption influencing effects likes, adsorbent dose, contact time, co-anions, pH of the solution, and temperature experiments have been performed. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic experiments have been studied and the data have been well tailored by the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Thermodynamic parametric studies revealed endothermic and spontaneous nature of the overall sorption system. Besides, MK-chitosan beads were found to regeneration performance up to eight consecutive cycles. Furthermore, the adsorbent-adsorbate system implying that MK-chitosan beads could be a promising candidate for the removal of phosphate and nitrate ions from aqueous solutions.