Impregnation of magnetic - Momordica charantia leaf powder into chitosan for the removal of U(VI) from aqueous and polluted wastewater

Abstract Uranium (U(VI)) is radioactive and the primary raw material in the production of nuclear energy. Hence the research associated with uranium removal gained a lot of importance because to reduce the threat of uranium contamination to ecology and its environment surroundings. Thus, economically as well as environmentally friendly sorbents with a good sorption capacity have to be acquired for the removal of U(VI) pollutants from the aqueous and polluted sea samples. In this study magnetic- Momordica charantia leaf powder impregnated into chitosan (m-MCLPICS) was prepared through the impregnation method. After preparation the adsorbent undergone through various characterizations such as BET, XRD, FTIR, SEM with elemental mapping, and VSM analysis. The specific surface area (93.12 m2/g), pore size (0.212 cm3/g) and pore volume (15.35 nm) of m-MCLPICS was obtained from the BET analysis. A pH value of 5 and 0.5 g of adsorbent dose were selected as an optimum values for U(VI) removal. Kinetic data follows the pseudo-second-order model, and the equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. ΔG° (−1.6999, −2.4994, −3.5476 and −4.5147 kJ/mol), ΔH0 (25.1 kJ/mol) and ΔS0 (0.089 kJ/mol K) indicates that the U(VI) sorption process is feasible, spontaneous and endothermic.