Sajad Abdi - Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.
Hossein Hazrati - Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.
Seyed Majid Abdoli - Chemical Engineering Department, Sahand University of Technology, Tabriz, Iran.

Over recent decades, there has been a documented rise in natural organic matter (NOM) levels in surface waters globally, adversely affecting drinking water treatment processes. This study is focused on employing adsorption techniques to explore the removal of proteinaceous NOM from an aqueous solution. A chitosan/polyacrylamide (chitosan/PAM) hydrogel was synthesized through a multi-step procedure involving chitosan and acrylamide solutions preparation, polymerization initiation, mixing, gelation, purification, and drying. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were employed to characterize the synthesized chitosan/PAM hydrogel, examining its structural and morphological features. Adsorption experiments were conducted to assess performance of chitosan/PAM hydrogel adsorbent for the removal of bovine serum albumin (BSA) from aqueous solutions. Various physical parameters including temperature, time, pH, initial BSA concentration, and adsorbent dosage were examined in batch experiments. The adsorption capacity of chitosan/PAM hydrogel for BSA and removal percent of BSA was found ۶۱۷ mg/g and ۷۷.۲ % at ۶ h under optimum conditions (T= ۲۵ºC and pH=۷) with kinetic studies indicating a best fit with the pseudo-۱st-order model. Isotherm studies demonstrated that the Temkin isotherm model best fitted with experimental BSA adsorption data (R۲ > ۰.۹۹). The findings underscore the efficacy of the developed adsorbent in efficiently removing natural proteins. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate that the adsorption capacity of the chitosan/PAM hydrogel augmented with rising temperature and initial BSA concentration.

Chitosan, Polyacrylamide, Protein, Hydrogel, Adsorption