LAUSR

A ternary composite consisting of carboxymethyl chitosan, hemicellulose, and nanosized TiO2 (CHNT) was prepared by incorporating TiO2 nanoparticles into the pre-synthesized carboxymethyl chitosan-hemicellulose polysaccharide network. The microstructure and chemical composition of the obtained CHNT was characterized by TEM, SEM, FTIR, and TGA. The adsorption of some toxic heavy metals including Ni(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), Mn(VII), and Cr(VI), onto the as-prepared CHNT composite was investigated. The effects of pH, temperature and contacting time on the adsorption process were studied. Results revealed that the CHNT composite exhibited efficient adsorption capacity of the above metal ions from aqueous solution due to its favorable chelating groups in structure. The adsorption process was best described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, while isotherm modeling revealed that the Langmuir equation better described the adsorption on CHNT as compared to Freundlich model. Moreover, the CHNT loaded metal ions can be easily regenerated with EDTA and reused repeatedly up to five cycles. The environmental friendly hybrids were expected to be a promising candidate for future practical application in heavy metal contaminated water treatment.