Effective Removal of Copper (II) and Cadmium (II) by Adsorbent Prepared from Chitosan-modified Magnetic Biochar

A novel chitosan-modified magnetic biochar composite (CC-Fe) was synthesized by embedding Fe2O3 and assembling chitosan in two-step. The properties of CC-Fe were characterized systematically by elemental analysis, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and batch sorption processes. The prepared adsorbent composite was comprised of magnetic particulates of Fe2O3 and multifunctional group, and thus exhibited high sorption capability to remove copper (II) or cadmium (II) from waste water. For both copper (II) and cadmium (II), CC-Fe demonstrated a higher sorption capability (98% and 97%) than the non-chitosan magnetic biochar (11% and 7%). The sorption experimental results showed that the composite is a potential sorbent to remove copper (II) and cadmium (II). Due to its excellent magnetic characteristic, the heavy metal-laden CC-Fe could be isolated again from treated solution and reused after the desorption treatment. The functional groups of CC-Fe made efforts to the removal of heavy metals.