Efficient Decontamination of Lead Ions from Wastewater by Salecan Polysaccharide-Based Hydrogels

Designing versatile adsorption materials with high efficiency, excellent reversibility, and economic production is vital for treating wastewater but remains challenging. Here, a new polysaccharide (salecan) based superabsorbent was developed by graft copolymerization of acrylamide and sodium vinylsulfonate onto the salecan and used to remove lead ions (Pb2+) from water. Effects of salecan content, adsorbent amount, contact time, adsorbate concentration, and pH on the extent of Pb2+ adsorption were studied. The optimized absorbent (containing 9 mL of 2% salecan polysaccharide) exhibited an optimal adsorption performance in Pb2+ removal (172.8 mg/g). Noticeably, the adsorptive behavior of gel matched well with the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. In addition, our product presented no apparent loss in Pb2+ adsorption after 6 cycles. Overall, this work not only provided a new strategy to construct highly efficient and low-cost adsorbent but also demonstrated its potential application for heavy metal removal.