Chitosan-based Materials in Waste Water Treatment––Recent Developments - Natural Polymers, Biopolymers, Biomaterials, and Their Composites, Blends, and IPNs - page 34

It is evident from our literature survey that chitosan and its derivatives have dem-
onstrated outstanding removal capabilities of metal ions as compared to other low-cost
sorbents and commercial activated carbons. Biopolymer adsorbents are efficient and
can be used for the decontamination of effluents, for separation processes, and also
for analytical purposes. The literature data show that the sorption capacity, specificity
and adsorption kinetics are mainly influenced by chemical structure and composition
of the bio polymer, and also by the accessibility of chelating or complexing groups.
Despite the number of papers published on natural adsorbents for pollutants uptake
from contaminated water, there is yet little literature containing a wholesome study
comparing various sorbents. Infact, the data obtained from the biopolymer derivatives
have not been compared systematically with commercial activated carbon or synthetic
ion exchange resins, which showed high removal efficiencies, except in recent publi-
cations. In addition, comparisons of different sorbents are difficult because of incon-
sistencies in the data presentation. Thus, much work is necessary to better understand
adsorption and the possible technologies in the industrial scale.

KeyWords

• adsorption

• azacrown ether

• Glutaraldehyde

• Polyacrylamide

• stoichiometry

• Xanthate group