Our recent review research on magnetic chitosan adsorbents for the removal of rare Earth metals, Mercury and Uranium from wastewater has been published in Polymers (I.F. 4.329) entitled "Adsorption of Uranium, Mercury, and Rare Earth Elements from Aqueous Solutions onto Magnetic Chitosan Adsorbents: A Review".
The research was financially supported by the Greek Ministry of Development and Investments (General Secretariat for Research and Technology) through the research project “Research‐Create‐Innovate”, with the topic “Development of an integration methodology for the treatment of micropollutants in wastewaters and leachates coupling adsorption, advanced oxidation processes and membrane technology” (Grant no: Τ2ΕΔΚ‐04066).
Abstract
The compound of chitin is the second most important and abundant natural biopolymer in the world. The main extraction and exploitation sources of this natural polysaccharide polymer are mainly crustaceans species, such as shrimps and crabs. Chitosan (CS) (poly-β-(1 → 4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucose) can be derived from chitin and can be mentioned as a compound that has high value-added applications due to its wide variety of uses, including pharmaceutical, biomedical, and cosmetics applications, food etc. Furthermore, chitosan is a biopolymer that can be used for adsorption applications because it contains amino and hydroxyl groups in its chemical structure (molecules), resulting in possible interactions of adsorption between chitosan and pollutants (uranium, mercury, rare earth elements (REEs), phenols, etc.). However, adsorption is a very effective, fast, simple, and low-cost process. This review article places emphasis on recent demonstrated research papers (2014–2020) where the chemical modifications of CS are explained briefly (grafting, cross-linking etc.) for the uptake of uranium, mercury, and REEs in synthesized aqueous solutions. Finally, figures and tables from selected synthetic routes of CS are presented and the effects of pH and the best mathematical fitting of isotherm and kinetic equations are discussed. In addition, the adsorption mechanisms are discussed.
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