Preparation of chitosan/poly(acrylic acid) magnetic composite microspheres and applications in the removal of copper(II) ions from aqueous solutions.

In this current work, the magnetic composite microspheres (MCM), consisting of Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) blended chitosan (CS), were prepared successfully by a simple method, co-precipitation of the compounds in alkaline solution. SEM, FTIR and TG techniques have been applied to investigate the structures of the MCM materials. The vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) measurement illustrated a paramagnetic property as well as a fast magnetic response, which indicated the significant separability of the MCM in the aqueous suspensions. Then, the MCM materials were employed as absorbents for removal of copper(II) (Cu(II)) ions from aqueous solutions. The fundamental adsorption behaviors of MCM were studied also. Experimental results revealed that the CS/PAA-MCM had greater adsorption capacity than CS-MCM, and PAA played an important role for the adsorption of Cu(II) ions. Moreover, the adsorption isotherms were all well described by the Langmuir model, while the adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second order equation. Furthermore, the adsorbent could be easily regenerated at lower pH and reused almost without any loss of adsorption capacity. On the contrary, the Cu(II) ions loaded CS-MCM and CS/PAA-MCM were stable enough at pH higher than 4.0, and both exhibited efficient phosphate removal with maximal uptakes around 63.0 and 108.0 mg Pg(-1), respectively.