Adsorption removal of tartrazine by chitosan/polyaniline composite: Kinetics and equilibrium studies.

The present work focused on the performance of chitosan/polyaniline (Cht-PANI) composite for removing tartrazine dye from aqueous solutions. The adsorbent was characterized using SEM, XRD, FTIR, and TGA/DTA techniques. The effects of pH, initial dye concentration, contact time, and temperature on azo dye removal were studied. The kinetics and isotherm of tartrazine removal follow pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Freundlich isotherm, respectively. The Langmiur isotherm model exhibted a maximum adsorption capacity of 584.0 mg/g. The thermodynamic parameters were calculated and the negative values of ΔG° and positive value of ΔH° indicate that the adsorption processes are spontaneous and endothermic in nature. In addition, the resulting adsorbent reusability was demonstrated over four cycles, indicating that the Cht-PANI is a very promising adsorbent for removal of toxic pollutants from aqueous solutions.