Preparation and Kinetic Modeling of Cross-Linked Chitosan Microspheres Immobilized Zn(II) for Urea Adsorption

Abstract

The preparation of Zn(II)-immobilized glutaraldehyde-crosslinked chitosan microspheres which was modified with epichlorohydrin, tetraethylenepentamine, and bromoacetic acid was presented in this work. The Zn(II)-immobilized value of the microspheres (Ac-TEPA-CS) is 43.6 mg g−1, which is higher than the blank microspheres. The adsorption of urea onto Zn-Ac-TEPA-CS was studied in a batch system. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models were applied to describe the experimental isotherm and isotherm constant, and the kinetic of adsorption process were estimated. These data fits well with Langmuir isotherm and also indicated that the adsorption process is exothermic and follow the pseudo-second-order kinetics. The adsorption capacity depends upon the pH, the temperature and the initial concentration of urea. It observed that Zn-Ac-TEPA-CS could be repeatedly used by elution and regeneration without significant loss of adsorption capacity.