Effect of temperature, particle size and percentage deacetylation on the adsorption of acid dyes on chitosan

The adsorption of five acidic dyes on chitosan—a by-product from waste crustacean shell—has been studied. The equilibrium data have been studied using Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson equations. The best correlations are obtained using the Langmuir isotherm suggesting the mechanism involves one process step of dyes complexing with the free amino group. The effect of chitosan particle size was investigated and showed an increase in adsorption capacity with decreasing particle size indicating that the available external surface was an important factor. Increasing solution temperature resulted in an increase in adsorption capacity indicating an exothermic process with a negative ΔH. Finally, the effect of varying the percentage degree of deacetylation showed that from 52% to 97% resulted in decrease in the dye adsorption capacity suggesting that more amorphisation may cause changes in the internal structure of chitosan and reduce the capacity.