Tailoring Homogeneous Hydrogel Nanospheres by Facile Ultra-Sonication Assisted Cross-Linked Copolymerization for Rhodamine B Dye Adsorption
Gaurav Sharma,
Alberto García-Peñas,
Yaksha Verma,
Amit Kumar,
Pooja Dhiman,
Florian J. Stadler
Affiliations
Gaurav Sharma
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Alberto García-Peñas
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Yaksha Verma
International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan 173229, Himachal Pradesh, India
Amit Kumar
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
Pooja Dhiman
International Research Centre of Nanotechnology for Himalayan Sustainability (IRCNHS), Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan 173229, Himachal Pradesh, India
Florian J. Stadler
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Polymer Science and Technology, Guangdong Research Center for Interfacial Engineering of Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518055, China
The present paper describes the design of shape-oriented hydrogel nanospheres using a facile ultrasonication-supported crosslinked copolymerization technique. The effect of variable monomer concentration on the homogeneity of hydrogel nanospheres was investigated. The chitosan-cl-poly(MMA) hydrogel nanospheres were well characterized using various techniques such as FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM, and TEM. The chitosan-cl-poly(MMA) hydrogel nanospheres were studied for their swelling behavior and could potentially be used as a novel adsorbent for rhodamine B dye remediation from aqueous media. The study found that utilizing chitosan-cl-poly(MMA) nanohydrogel spheres at the optimal pH 5 increased RhB dye adsorption capacity from 7.9 to 17.8 mg/g (pH 2 to 5), followed by a slight reduction. Furthermore, when nanohydrogel concentration increased, adsorption capacity dropped from 18.03 to 2.8 mg/g, but adsorption percentage climbed from 90.2% to 97.8%. At an initial dye concentration of 140 mg/L, rhodamine B adsorption achieved 204.3 mg/g in 60 min. The rhodamine B dye adsorption study includes adsorption kinetics, isotherm, and thermodynamics analyses. The interpretation of the adsorption study revealed that Langmuir isotherms fit best with a qmax value of 276.26 mg/g, which is in close approximation with the experimental value, whereas pseudo-second-order kinetics explains the adsorption process rate. The interaction of RhB dye with chitosan-cl-poly(MMA) hydrogel nanospheres involves multiple forces such as electrostatic interactions, hydrogen bonding, van der Waals forces, etc.
