Superior efficacy of biocomposite membranes of chitosan with montmorillonite and kaolin vs pure chitosan for removal of Cu(II) from wastewater

The development of environment-friendly products and processes is the need of the hour. Both chitosan and clays are naturally available abundant materials. The application of clays, kaolin and montmorillonite, for water treatment, constitutes an important area of research. The use of membranes has become favorable over technologies like distillation and extraction. This paper reports preparation of chitosan membranes with kaolin and montmorillonite by a simple solvent evaporation technique. The membranes were further characterized using various analytical techniques like SEM, XRD, TGA-DSC and FTIR. An aqueous solution of Cu(II) was adsorbed using these membranes and their effectiveness summarized. Effect of variables like contact time and initial dye concentration were studied for adsorption. The membranes could be reused after regeneration. Chitosan/montmorillonite membranes (CMM) show 86% removal of Cu ions with the adsorption following pseudo 2nd order isotherm. A simple eco-friendly biocomposite membrane is very effective in copper removal from waste water.

Automated summary

This paper reports the preparation and characterization of chitosan membranes with kaolin and montmorillonite for water treatment. The results show that the chitosan/montmorillonite membranes are effective in removing copper ions from waste water.