Competitive adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) onto xanthate-modified magnetic chitosan.

The competitive adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) onto a novel xanthate-modified magnetic chitosan (XMCS) was systematically investigated in single and ternary metal systems. In single system, equilibrium studies showed that the adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) followed the Langmuir model and the maximum adsorption capacities were found to be 76.9, 34.5 and 20.8mg/g, respectively. In ternary system, the combined action of the metals was found to be antagonistic and the metal sorption followed the order of Pb(II)>Cu(II)>Zn(II); the Langmuir isotherm fitted the data of Pb(II) and Cu(II) well while the isotherm data of Zn(II) correlated well with the Freundlich model. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) studies showed that the thiol and amino group participated in the adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II).