STUDY OF THE ADSORPTION OF METHYLENE BLUE DYE IN CHITOSAN MICROSPHERES
Chitosan is a polymer that can be used as adsorbent material. In this work, chitosan was synthesized via alkaline hydrolysis of chitin. The chemical structure was characterized by IR spectroscopy and the degree of deacetylation (% DG) of the acetamido groups present in the polymer matrix by neutralization titration. The most suitable adsorption model for analysis of experimental data was Langmuir. The maximum adsorption capacity of the microspheres (Ns) of chitosan was 3.36 x 10-6 mol g-1 adsorbent. The rate of adsorption is governed by the kinetics of the pseudo-second order, where the saturation of adsorption sites occurred after two hours of contact between the adsorbent and the adsorbate. By analyzing data across the isotherm model Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) it was found that this process adsorption is physical in nature.