Synergistic behaviour of ionic liquid impregnated sulphate-crosslinked chitosan towards adsorption of Cr(VI).

Aliquat-336 (an ionic liquid) impregnated sulphate-crosslinked chitosan (SCC) was prepared for escalating the adsorption of hexavalent chromium through concurrent interaction. The compound obtained was intensively characterized using Fourier transform infra red (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) studies. Various isotherm studies have been carried out to understand the adsorption mechanism. Quantitative adsorption of Cr(VI) was observed at pH 3.0 with adsorption capacity of 250.90 mg g(-1) in accordance with Langmuir isotherm. The adsorption of Cr(VI) followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. The adsorption efficiency was found to decrease with increase in temperature due to increased randomness at interaction sites. The adsorption process was found to be exothermic and spontaneous in nature. Column studies were carried out to understand the applicability of the material for higher sample volumes. The adsorbent could be regenerated using sodium hydroxide treatment and the regenerated adsorbent had same efficiency towards adsorption of Cr(VI) as that of the original.