Adsorptive Schiff Base-Chitosan Nanocomposite for Removal of Pb(II) Ion from Aqueous Solutions

A new chitosan-2-iminothiophenol methylbenzaldehyde Schiff base-based adsorbent (Fig. 1)was synthesized to be effective adsorbent for adsorption of Pb+2 from aqueous solutions. Theadsorbent was characterized by FT-IR, SEM, EDX, DLS, VSM, and XRD. Batch adsorptionexperiments were done under various conditions, such as adsorbent dose, pH, and contacttime. The equilibrium data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. Themaximum monolayer capacity obtained from the Langmuir isotherm was 134.10 mg/g. TheMCS-Sch was found to be regenerated effectively up to five efficient cycles of adsorption/desorption processes. The mechanism for Pb+2 adsorption onto MCS-Sch involved theinteractions of N, O and S atoms and also aromatic rings with heavy metal followed by theiradsorption on the MCS-Sch.