Removal of copper using novel amidoxime based chelating nanohybrid adsorbent

Abstract Novel poly(acrylonitrile) grafted sepiolite nanohybrid material (RGS) has been synthesized by using simultaneous radiation grafting technique. The grafting yield was measured by varying the absorbed dose and monomer concentration in the mixture. The acrylonitrile group present in nanohybrid material was chemically modified into amidoxime. Both the grafting yield and degree of conversion of acrylonitrile to amidoxime was examined by gravimetric analyses. The structural and morphological investigations of these nanohybrid materials were performed by FT-IR, XRD and FESEM. Batch adsorption studies were carried out for copper uptake onto amidoximated nanohybrid adsorbents to envisage the effects of pH, adsorbent dose, contact time and initial concentration. Removal of copper ion attained equilibrium within 30 minutes following pseudo-second order kinetics. The equilibrium process was well described by the Langmuir isotherm model and the maximum adsorption capacity (Q m ) was found to be 278 mg/g for 5 kGy irradiated sample. This environmental friendly and cost effective adsorbent can be used for the removal of copper ion from aqueous solutions.