Removal of oil spills by novel developed amphiphilic chitosan-g-citronellal schiff base polymer

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 19879
• Main Authors: Omer, Ahmed Mohamed, Eweida, Basant Yossry, Tamer, Tamer Mahmoud, Soliman, Hesham M. A., Ali, Safaa Mohamed, Zaatot, Ahmed Amin, Mohy-Eldin, Mohamed Samir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.10.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301; 639/638; 704/172; Adsorption; Chemical analysis; Chitosan; Citronellal; Crude oil; Humanities and Social Sciences; Infrared spectroscopy; multidisciplinary; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oil spills; Pollutant removal; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Seawater; Surface area; Water analysis; Water uptake
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99241-9

A novel chitosan grafted citronellal (Ch-Cit) schiff base amphiphilic polymer was developed for the adsorptive removal of oil spills. The chemical structure was verified by FT-IR spectroscopy and 1 H NMR spectrometer, while the morphological changes and surface area were investigated by SEM and BET analysis tools. The amphiphilic character of Ch-Cit schiff base was controlled through variation of the grafting percentage (G%) of citronellal from 11 to 61%. Dramatic changes in the ion exchange capacity (IEC), solubility and water uptake profiles were established, while the oil adsorption capacity was founded in direct relation with the G (%) of citronellal. Operational conditions such as oil amount, adsorption time, adsorbent dose and agitation speed were investigated. The developed Ch-Cit schiff base exhibited a higher surface area (115.94 m 2 /g) compared to neat chitosan (57.78 m 2 /g). The oil adsorption capacity of the Ch-Cit schiff base was greatly improved by 166% and 120% for light crude and heavy crude oil, respectively. Finally, the adsorption process was optimized using response surface methodology (RSM).The results substantiate that the amphiphilic Ch-Cit schiff base could be efficiently applied as a low-cost oil-adsorbent for the removal of crude oil spills from sea-water surfaces.