Preparation of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-grafted chitosan-montmorillonite superabsorbent nanocomposite for adsorption of bovine serum albumin

In this paper, we examined adsorption process of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on [p(HEMA)-g-CTS]/MMT ([poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-graft-chitosan]/montmorillonite) superabsorbent nanocomposite. [p(HEMA)-g-CTS]/MMT superabsorbent nanocomposite was synthesized via free radical polymerization. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques, and also swelling test have been utilized for the structural characterization of the synthesized [p(HEMA)-g-CTS]/MMT superabsorbent nanocomposite. The influence of numerious adsorption parameters (initial BSA concentration, contact time, pH, sorbent amount, temperature, and ionic strength) on adsorption process were evaluated. Adsorption results showed that the superabsorbent nanocomposite had high affinity to BSA, and maximum adsorption capacity of [p(HEMA)-g-CTS]/MMT superabsorbent nanocomposite is 75.8 mg/g. The BSA adsorption results showed that the adsorption kinetics parameters was found to be suitable for the pseudo-second-order kinetic adsorption model and the equilibrium BSA adsorption data were explicated according to the Freundlich adsorption isotherm model.