Adsorption behavior and antimicrobial activity of new chitosan based functionalized nanocomposites: A case study

Abstract

Abstract Two new functionalized sorbents EPC@MC and ENC@MC were synthesized by the grafting of two amino ester derivatives EPC and ENC on magnetic chitosan nanoparticles respectively. The prepared sorbents were characterized using FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, and SEM-EDX facilities, TEM, SEAD pattern, and TGA analysis. The sorption process was investigated for three fresh contaminated water samples; sewage wastewater, iron and steel wastewater, and tannery wastewater respectively. The obtained data illustrated that EPC@MC and ENC@MC are highly selective for some heavy metals removal from the different samples of industrial wastewater. The sorption process was performed under different pH values. To complete our case study, the antimicrobial properties of the functionalized sorbents as well as that of the corresponding amino esters were characterized by determining the inhibition zone values against Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus), Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli), as well as a yeast species (Candida albicans) and fungi including one filamentous fungus (Aspergillus fumigatus) and by using a well-modified diffusion method.