Fabrication of cellulose acetate/chitosan blend films as efficient adsorbent for anionic water pollutants

The aim of this study was to develop a material based on cellulose acetate and chitosan fabricated via a simple non-hazardous solvent casting method and modified them by deacetylation approach. Both the modified and unmodified chitosan/cellulose acetate films were well characterized in terms of their morphology, chemical moieties and wettability using field emission scanning electron microscope, attenuated total reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscope and static water contact angle, respectively. A quantitative analysis such as charge titration experiments was conducted on the films to determine the number of accessible charges in the films which has a significant role in the adsorption phenomenon. Subsequently, the films developed by different compositions of cellulose acetate and chitosan were modified for the first time using deacetylation process under the optimized condition and characterized them using the same above-mentioned technologies. The impact of both unmodified and modified cellulose acetate/chitosan film on freshwater remediation was investigated by adsorbing two known dye such as acid orange 7 and brilliant yellow from the aqueous solution. An enhanced removal efficiency (% R) and adsorption capacity [qe (mg/g)] were observed on both the dyes (99.8% and 9.98 mg/g for acid orange 7, 99.7% and 9.38 mg/g for brilliant yellow) using modified cellulose acetate/chitosan films. The result obtained from this research proved that the modified cellulose acetate/chitosan film was made by acetic acid and water mixture can be used as a potential candidate for anionic dye water treatment.