Graphene Oxide-Chitosan Composites for Water Treatment from Copper Cations

This paper considers modern sorption materials for wastewater treatment. The literature data on wastewater treatment with materials based on graphene and chitosan are presented. The production and application of composite sorbents is discussed. It is shown that a promising application of graphene oxide (GO) as a filler enhances the mechanical and sorption properties of the polymer matrix. The biopolymer chitosan (Ch) is a challenging matrix for GO, having unique sorption, chelate-forming, ion-exchange, and complex-forming properties. Composite adsorbents based on graphene oxide and chitosan have a high extraction efficiency of heavy and radioactive metals, dyes, and pharmaceutical compounds dorzolamide and tetracycline. GO-Ch composites with various ratios of chitosan and graphene oxide (2–7%) were formed by drop granulation. The composites obtained were investigated in terms of the ability to extract copper cations from the effluents, and it was shown that the composite having the content of GO:Ch = 55.5:44.5% (by mass in dry granules) had the best sorption and mechanical properties. This sample had high purification efficiency from copper cations (96%) and the required mechanical properties (attrition ≤ 0.4%, grindability ≤ 4%). For this sample, the influence of various factors (pH, sorbent dosage, temperature, and time of sorption) on sorption processes were studied. The best conditions for the sorption processes by the GO-Ch sorbent were determined. The sorbent dosage was 20 g/L, the sorption time was 20 min, and the temperature was 20 ± 2 °C, pH = 7. The adsorption isotherm was plotted and the maximum sorption capacity of copper cations A = 58.5 mg/g was determined. Microstructural and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies of GO-Ch composites showed the presence of a porous surface and OH- and C=O functional groups. A mechanism for the extraction of copper cations due to physical sorption of the porous surface by GO-Ch composites, and due to chemisorption processes by functional groups, was proposed. The sorption properties for methylene blue and iodine absorption, and the specific surface area of the GO-Ch samples, were determined. The spent sorbent is proposed to be used as a soil improver.