Chitosan blended polystyrene synthesis and its use to remove the toxic effects of chromium and copper from industrial wastewater

S Raghunadh Acharyulu; N Prakash; PN Sudha

Abstract

Chitosan blended polystyrene synthesis and its use to remove the toxic effects of chromium and copper from industrial wastewater

Author(s): S Raghunadh Acharyulu, N Prakash* and PN Sudha

In the present days water is contaminated by toxic metals like chromium and copper by the effluents from the Industries. The attempt has been made in the present study to remove the toxic metals by using bio degradable polymer viz., chitosan or chitosan crosslinked with poly styrene. Chitosan is blended with polystyrene and also cross linked with glutaraldehyde and this blended polymer with crosslinked one is used for the removal of toxic metals. Hence the crosslinked chitosan-polystyrene (CCS/PST) copolymer blends could successfully open a way for the chromium (VI) and copper (II) ions removal from aqueous solutions. The optimum pH required for maximum adsorption was found to be 5.0 and 6.0 for chromium and copper respectively. The experimental equilibrium adsorption data were fitted using Langmuir and Freundlich equations. It is observed that adsorption kinetics of both the metal ions on polystyrene (CCS/PST) blended crosslinked chitosan can well be analyzed with pseudo-secondorder model.

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