2-Mercaptobenzimidazole-functionalized chitosan for enhanced removal of methylene blue: batch and column studies

Abstract Chitosan functionalized with 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (2-MBI) (i.e. 2-MBI@Chit) shows high sorption capacity (i.e., 1.28 mmol MB g-1) for methylene blue (MB) at pH close to 9.3). Sorption is weakly decreased (by less than 25%) by high NaCl concentration (up to 45 g L-1). The sorption (slightly endothermic) is fitted by the Langmuir equation. The kinetic profile is fitted by the pseudo-first order rate equation (PFORE): equilibrium reached within 90 min of contact. The resistance to film diffusion is minimized when setting agitation speed at 200 rpm. Dye desorption is successfully achieved (up to 94.5%) using 0.8 M; desorption kinetics is little slower than the sorption step. The loss in sorption capacity at the fifth sorption/desorption cycle does not exceed 5%. Yoon-Nelson, Bohart-Adams, and bed-depth service time equations are used for analyzing the breakthrough in fixed-bed columns. At the exhaustion of the column, the sorption capacity approaches the maximum sorption capacity in batch: all the reactive groups remain accessible in dynamic sorption mode. The dye is efficiently recovered from spiked seawater and the sorption performance is depreciated by less than 16% while comparing tap water and seawater under selected experimental conditions.