Fabrication of Nano Zero valent Iron/Biopolymer Composite with Antibacterial Properties for Simultaneous Removal of Nitrate and Humic Acid: Kinetics and Isotherm Studies

Abstract

This investigation compared the adsorption behavior of humic acid (HA) on cellulose, chitosan and nano zerovalent iron/chitosan (nZVI/chitosan). Results show that nZVI/chitosan is very effective in the adsorption of HA from aqueous media. The feasibility of using nZVI/chitosan as an adsorbent for the simultaneous removal of nitrate and HA from aqueous media was also studied. Structural analyses of the samples were identified by TEM, FT-IR, EDX, XRD and N2 isotherms. The effects of pH, amount of composite, nitrate concentration, HA concentration and contact time and their interactions on responses were explored by central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal conditions of pH (5.5), adsorbent amount (0.098 g), reaction time (27 min) and initial concentrations (110 mg/L for nitrate and 30 mg/L for HA) were obtained from the desirability function. The adsorption properties of the resulting nanocomposite toward nitrate and HA were investigated through kinetic and isotherm studies. The adsorption kinetics was found to fit the pseudo-second order model. The obtained results indicate that nitrate uptake fitted well with Langmuir model while Freundlich isotherm was the best model for describing the multilayer uptake of HA from aqueous solutions. Moreover, nZVI/chitosan nanocomposite illustrates a very high antibacterial activity against pathogen bacteria strains such as Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25935, ATCC 25923, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853. The findings reported in this investigation highlight the potential of using nZVI/chitosan as a promising adsorbent for the simultaneous removal of nitrate and HA from aqueous solutions.