Chitosan Versus Chitosan-Vanillin Modified: An Evaluation of the Competitive Adsorption of Five Emerging Contaminants

Emerging contaminants (ECs) have been studied extensively because of the various damages they can cause to the environment, especially due to the non-treated domestic effluents, which contaminate the water bodies. Therefore, it is important to evaluate alternatives to remove these compounds. The objective of this work was to evaluate the potential of a new biosorbent from chitosan modified with vanillin (CTSV) to remove isoniazid, cortisol, bisphenol A, 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol, and triclosan by competitive adsorption studies. Structural characterization of the biosorbents was performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy, and H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance. The adsorption for ECs were carried out in an aqueous medium, and quantitative analyzes were performed by HPLC. The effect of pH was evaluated in the pH range 5 to 10 and indicated that better results were found in pH 9 and 8 for CTS and CTSV, respectively. The salt concentrations effect was evaluated in 0.0 to 1.0 mol L-1 and revealed better adsorption conditions in 0.7 mol L-1 of NaCl. The adsorption kinetics pointed to an equilibrium condition reached quickly (with adjustment of data R-2 > 0.969) with adequacy to pseudo-second-order model for both biosorbents and ECs. The linear isothermal model was suitable for the adsorption isothermal data and distribution constant (K-D) showed the highest values for 17 alpha-ethinylestradiol (0.067 L g(-1)) and triclosan (0.197 L g(-1)) in CTSV adsorption. Thus, the results indicated that CTSV performed well in removal for the tested ECs, being an interesting alternative, due to the ease of obtaining and abundance of reagents employed in its preparation.

Automated summary

The study evaluated the adsorption potential of modified chitosan for several contaminants and found that under specific conditions, it showed good adsorption performance.