Facile preparation of carbon nanotubes based carboxymethyl chitosan nanocomposites through combination of mussel inspired chemistry and Michael addition reaction: Characterization and improved Cu2+ removal capability

• Published in: Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers 2016-11, Vol.68, p.446-454
• Main Authors: Zeng, Guangjian, Liu, Xinhua, Liu, Meiying, Huang, Qiang, Xu, Dazhuang, Wan, Qing, Huang, Hongye, Deng, Fengjie, Zhang, Xiaoyong, Wei, Yen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon nanotubes; Chitosan; Heavy metal ion removal; Michael addition reaction; Mussel inspired chemistry
• ISSN: 1876-1070; 1876-1089
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtice.2016.09.008

•Preparation of CNT-PDA-CS through mussel inspired chemistry and Michael addition reaction.•CNT-PDA-CS showed enhanced adsorption capability toward Cu2+.•The method for fabrication of CNT-PDA-CS is rather simple and efficient.•The bioinspired method can be also used for fabrication of many other high efficient adsorbents. The adsorption removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution using polymer nanocomposites has attracted great interest because of their advantages from both nanomaterials and polymers. In this work, a facile and novel method has been developed for surface modification of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) with carboxymethyl chitosan via combination of mussel inspired chemistry and Michael addition reaction. To obtain resultant CNT based chitosan nanocomposites (CNT-PDA-CS), pristine CNT were first coated with polydopamine (PDA) thin films through self polymerization of dopamine under alkaline aqueous solution. Then PDA modified CNT were further functionalized with carboxymethyl chitosan (CS) via Michael addition reaction. The successful preparation of CNT-PDA-CS nanocomposites was ascertained by a series of characterization techniques including transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. The utilization of the resultant CNT-PDA-CS for removal of Cu2+ from aqueous solution was also examined in this work. The results showed that CNT-PDA-CS exhibited obviously enhanced Cu2+ removal capability as compared with the unmodified CNT. Considered the versatility of mussel inspired chemistry, the method described in this work should be a general route for fabricating highly efficient adsorbents, which should be of great interest for environmental applications. High efficient CNT based nanoadsorbents (CNT-PDA-CS) were facilely prepared via combination of mussel inspired chemistry Michael addition reaction and utilized for removal of Cu2+ from aqueous solution [Display omitted]