Development of chitosan encapsulated tricalcium phosphate biocomposite for fluoride retention

The powder form of tricalcium phosphate (TCP) causes the significant pressure drop which limit its application under field conditions. To trounce such technological troubles and to enhance the defluoridation capacity (DC) of TCP, chitosan (CS) encapsulated TCP polymeric composite was prepared by dispersing TCP particles into chitosan polymeric matrix to produce tricalcium phosphate/chitosan (TCPCS) composite which could be made into any desirable form. The synthesized TCPCS composite possesses an enhanced DC of 1034 mgF(-)/kg than the individual components viz., TCP and chitosan which has got DC of 490 and 52 mgF(-)/kg respectively. The prepared adsorbents were characterized by FTIR, SEM and EDAX analysis. The various physico-chemical properties such as contact time, solution pH, co-anions and temperature were optimized to get maximum defluoridation. The equilibrium and kinetic experiments were conducted for TCPCS composite toward fluoride removal. The practical applicability of TCPCS composite was examined at field conditions. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.