Application of Chitosan for wastewater treatment

The chemical contamination of water from a wide range of toxic derivatives, in particular heavy metals, aromatic molecules and dyes, is a serious environmental problem owing to their potential human toxicity. Therefore, there is a need to develop technologies that can remove toxic pollutants found in wastewaters. Among all the treatments proposed, adsorption is one of the more popular methods for the removal of pollutants from the wastewater. In particular, adsorption on natural polymers and their derivatives are known to remove pollutants from water. There is a recent increasing interest in the synthesis of new low-cost adsorbents used in wastewater treatment. Chitosan, a versatile natural polysaccharide, the second most abundant natural polymer. Chitosan is a good adsorbent to remove several of anionic and cationic dyes as well as heavy metal ions. Various modifications of this polysaccharide have been investigated to improve the adsorption properties as well as mechanical and physical characteristics of chitosan. Chitosan interact with polyphosphate ions to form nanoparticles with different diameters depending on the mutual ratio among them. The present review shows the developments in the synthesis of adsorbents containing polysaccharides, in particular modified biopolymers derived from chitosan and their applications for wastewater treatment.

Keywords:

Chitosan , Chitin , Nanoparticles , Adsorption , Wastewater Treatment