Open AccessEnvironmentally friendly chitosan/PEI-grafted magnetic gelatin for the highly effective removal of heavy metals from drinking water
Author(s) -
Bingbing Li,
Feng Zhou,
Kai Huang,
Yipei Wang,
Surong Mei,
Yikai Zhou,
Jing Tao
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep43082
Subject(s) - gelatin , adsorption , polyethylenimine , chitosan , chemistry , cadmium , metal ions in aqueous solution , glutamine , copolymer , environmentally friendly , polymer , nuclear chemistry , polymer chemistry , metal , organic chemistry , amino acid , biochemistry , ecology , transfection , biology , gene
The development of environmentally friendly sorbents with a high adsorption capacity is an essential problem in the removal of heavy metals from drinking water. In this study, magnetic gelatin was prepared using transglutaminase as a cross-linker, which could only catalyze an acyl-transfer reaction between lysine and glutamine residues of the gelatin and not affect other amino groups. Therefore, it was beneficial for the further modification based on the amino groups, and did not affect the spatial structure of gelatin, which can effectively prevent the embedding of active sites in the polymer matrix. After modification with the chitosan/polyethylenimine copolymers, the numbers of amino groups was greatly increased, and the magnetic composites exhibited a high adsorption capacity, excellent water compatibility and simple magnetic separation. The adsorption capacities of lead and cadmium were 341 mg g −1 and 321 mg g −1 , respectively, which could be used for the removal of metal ions in drinking water.