Chitosan (Cs)-based composites were developed by incorporating silica (Cs–Si), and both silica and hydroxyapatite (Cs–Si–Hap), comparatively tested to sequester hexavalent (Cr(VI)) ions from water. XRD and FT-IR data affirmed the formation of Cs–Si and Cs–Si–Hap composite. Morphological images exhibits homogeneous Cs–Si surface, decorated with SiO2 nanoparticles, while the Cs–Si–Hap surface was non-homogeneous with microstructures, having SiO2 and Hap nanoparticles. Thermal analysis data revealed excellent thermal stability of the developed composites. Significant influence of pH, adsorbent dose, contact time, temperature, and coexisting anions on Cr(VI) adsorption onto composites was observed. Maximum Cr(VI) uptakes on Cs and developed composites were observed at pH 3. The equilibration time for Cr(VI) adsorption on Cs–Si–Hap was 10 min, comparatively better than Cs and Cs–Si. The adsorption data was fitted to pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models with respective maximum monolayer adsorption capacities (qm) of 55.5, 64.4, and 212.8 mg/g for Cs, Cs–Si, and Cs–Si–Hap. Regeneration studies showed that composites could be used for three consecutive cycles without losing their adsorption potential.

Herein, a chitosan (CH) and fluroapatite (TNP) based CH-TNP composite was synthesized by utilizing seafood waste and phosphate rock and was tested for divalent copper (Cu(II)) adsorptive removal from water. The XRD and FT-IR data affirmed the formation of a CH-TNP composite, while BET analysis showed that the surface area of the CH-TNP composite (35.5 m2/g) was twice that of CH (16.7 m2/g). Mechanistically, electrostatic, van der Waals, and co-ordinate interactions were primarily responsible for the binding of Cu(II) with the CH-TNP composite. The maximum Cu(II) uptake of both CH and CH-TNP composite was recorded in the pH range 3–4. Monolayer Cu(II) coverage over both CH and CH-TNP surfaces was confirmed by the fitting of adsorption data to a Langmuir isotherm model. The chemical nature of the adsorption process was confirmed by the fitting of a pseudo-second-order kinetic model to adsorption data. About 82% of Cu(II) from saturated CH-TNP was recovered by 0.5 M NaOH. A significant drop in Cu(II) uptake was observed after four consecutive regeneration cycles. The co-existing ions (in binary and ternary systems) significantly reduced the Cu(II) removal efficacy of CH-TNP.

This paper evaluates the ability of a natural rock found in Morocco to remove the pollutant properties of methylene blue (MB) dye. In this regard, the experiments were conceived to test the hypothesis that the rock native of the country’s region of Khenifra can be used as a new abundant adsorbent to remove cationic dyes from water through the adsorption technique in order to avoid extra cost and contribute to the valorization of this material. For this, several factors such as pH of the solution, granulometry, mass of adsorbent, initial dye concentration and stirring rate were tested. The adsorption kinetics process was tested through three models, namely, the pseudo-first-order model, pseudo-second-order model and the intraparticle diffusion model, to predict which type of adsorption is best suited in the removal of dye pollution. The batch study proves that only the granulometry (G ≤ 63µm = 91%, G ≤ 80µm = 88.4% and G ≤ 100µm=70.7%) and the adsorbent mass (the more the mass of the adsorbent increases the more the elimination is achieved) can influence the elimination rate of our rock. Meanwhile, the data of the adsorption kinetics test show that the experimental adsorption could be described by the mechanism of the pseudo-second-order model (correlation coefficients near the unit ‘R 2 = 0.99’ ), confirming chemical sorption as a rate-limiting step of the intraparticle diffusion mechanism. According to the results of this study, the rock collected from the area of Khenifra can be used as a new and efficient adsorbent in the field of wastewater treatment.

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