Development of ionic liquid filled chitosan capsules to remove Cr(VI) from acidic solution: Adsorption properties and mechanism

Cr(VI)-contaminated water poses a serious threat to the environment. In this study, capsule-type biosorbent Aliquat-336-filled chitosan capsules (AFCCs) were prepared by a simple and gentle method for more efficient and eco-friendly removal of Cr(VI). The experimental results show that the uptake of Cr(VI) by AFCCs increased with increasing Aliquat-336 content. The AFCCs show excellent stability under acidic conditions, and the maximum adsorption capacity was reached at a pH of 2. The maximum adsorption capacity of AFCCs for Cr(VI) was 110.94 ± 5.07 mg/g at 20 °C, which was calculated based on the Langmuir model. The kinetic results show that the adsorption rate control process changed from liquid film diffusion to a chemical reaction with increasing shaking rate. In addition, the AFCCs and adsorption-reduction mechanism of Cr(VI) were characterized by digital photography, electron microscope, zeta potential, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the electrostatic attraction between quaternary amine groups in Aliquat-336 and Cr(VI) anions plays a major role in the removal of Cr(VI). Subsequently, the adsorbed Cr(VI) obtained electrons from CC/CH and NH3+/NH2+ were reduced to Cr(III), while CC/CH and NH3+/NH2+ were oxidized to CO, CO, =NH+, =N and NO, respectively.