Preparation of Poly(acrylic acid) -Boron Nitride Composite as a Highly Efficient Adsorbent for Adsorptive Removal of Heavy Metal Ions

The poly(acrylic acid)-boron nitride composite was prepared by radical initiated polymerization in situ with N,N '-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) as a crosslinker and potassium persulfate (KPS) as an initiator and the structure of poly(acrylic acid)-boron nitride were characterized by Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM). The ability of poly(acrylic acid)-boron nitride as adsorbent for adsorptive removal of heavy metal ion from aqueous solutions was investigated. The effects of poly(acrylic acid)-boron nitride dosage, pH, adsorption time, initial metal ion concentration and temperature on adsorption efficiency were also studied. Kinetics data followed best by pseudo-second-order model with the correlation coefficient (R-2) of 0.997. The equilibrium adsorption data was well fitted to Langmuir isotherm models for Cu(II). The adsorption capacities (q(max)) of poly(acrylic acid)-boron nitride composite for Cu(II) was 46.72 mg/g. The results of thermodynamic equilibrium constant and the Gibbs free energy indicated the spontaneous nature of the adsorption process.