Sulphate-Crosslinked Chitosan as an Adsorbent for the Removal of Congo Red Dye From Aqueous Solution

Dyes are a major cause of concern nowadays as large quantities are being released into water bodies causing pollution. In this article, modified chitosan (sulphate crosslinked) has been studied for the removal of Congo red (a benzidine-based anionic diazo dye) which is a toxic dye introduced into water bodies from textile industries. Sulphate-crosslinked chitosan (SCC) was prepared in the laboratory and the characterization of SCC was done by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Various parameters such as pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage, and concentration of adsorbent were optimized. The adsorption capacity was determined at pH 3.0, at which the percentage recovery was about 90% and followed Freundlich adsorption isotherm with an adsorption capacity of 91.8 mg/g. The adsorption followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. Various thermodynamic parameters were also determined for the change in adsorption with temperature. The SCC was regenerated with NaOH and showed good recycling capacity. The modified chitosan was applied for the removal of Congo red from industrial wastewater samples (spiked).