LAUSR

Abstract In this work, a novel tin (IV) phosphate/poly (gelatin-cl-alginate) (TP/PGA) nanocomposite ion exchanger has been synthesised by co-precipitation followed by in situ polymerisation method. The nanocomposite was analysed by different techniques such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and thermo-gravimetricanalysis (TGA). SEM and TEM results showed that the material has rough and porous surface with 20.28 nm particle size.The physicochemical properties indicatedhigh ion exchange capacity (1.02 meq/g) of TP/PGA as compared to TP (0.55 meq/g).TP/PGA was found to be bifunctionalin nature.The distribution coefficient study of different metal ions was determined using TP/PGA and found highly selective for Pb (II) ions. A heterogeneous ion-selective membrane electrode of TP/PGAnanocompositehas been designed with a linear Nernstian response. The membrane electrode shows good working concentration range (1 × 10−1 molL−1to 1 × 10−7 molL−1), pH range (4–8) and response time (30 s). Some binary separations such as Pb2+-Mg2+, Cu2+-Pb2+, Mg 2+- Co 2+, Cd2+-Cu2+, Cd2+-Al3+, Ni2+-Al3+, Ni2+-Co2+, Zn2+-Pb2+ were achieved onto TP/PGA column.The photodegradation efficiency of TP/PGA for the degradation of MO was investigated and found 89.98%.