Preparation and characterization of La(III) encapsulated silica gel/chitosan composite and its metal uptake studies.

Lanthanum loaded silica gel/chitosan composite (LaSiCS) was prepared by mixing silica gel, LaCl(3) · 7H(2)O and chitosan which was then cross-linked with glutaraldhyde. The LaSiCS composite was characterized using FT-IR, SEM-EDAX, XRD and BET. The adsorption of chromium(VI) ions onto LaSiCS composite has been investigated. The LaSiCS composite was found to have excellent chromium adsorption capacity than the silica gel/chitosan composite (SiCS), silica gel (Si) and chitosan (CS). The sorption experiments were carried out in batch mode to optimize various parameters viz., contact time, pH, initial chromium ion concentration, co-ions and temperature that influence the sorption. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were applied to describe isotherm constants. Equilibrium data agreed very well with the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic studies revealed that the nature of chromium sorption was spontaneous and endothermic. The LaSiCS composite removes chromium by electrostatic adsorption coupled reduction/ion-exchange.