Removal of fluoride from aqueous solution by mesoporous silica nanoparticles functionalized with chitosan derived from mushroom

In the present study, chitosan functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles have been synthesized. Chitosan derived from an edible mushroom, Agaricus bisporus was used during synthesis of chitosan functionalized silica nanoparticles. The functionalized silica nanoparticles were subjected to fluoride sorption using a batch method which subsequently showed removal efficiency of 95% with maximum sorption capacity, 58.8 mg/g. The characterization of nanoparticles was carried out by SEM, EDAX, XRD and FTIR analysis respectively. EDAX analysis suggested that oxygen, 51.83% and silica 37.24% was main constituent of the functionalized nanomaterials. XRD yielded characteristic diffraction pattern corresponding to the lattice planes (100), (110), (112), (120), (200) and (220) respectively. Sorption data was used to study equilibrium isotherm namely Langmuir and Freundlich model. The adsorption capacity increased with temperature while kinetics studies revealed that the adsorption process followed a pseudo-second-order rate equation. The enthalpy change (Delta H) and entropy change (Delta S) was found to be -31.36 kJmol(-1) and -7.75 Jmol(-1) K-1, showing endothermic and spontaneous nature of the fluoride adsorption. Data suggested that the nature of adsorption belonged to chemisorptions. The overall results suggested that the synthesized nanoparticles showed strong and specific affinity for fluoride and could be excellent adsorbents for defluoridation.