Innovative alginate-based hybrid composite beads for heavy metals removal

Nowadays, heavy metal pollution is considered one of the most important environmental issues. Thereby, this paper proposes a novel approach towards obtaining biofriendly hybrid composite beads based on sodium alginate-type biopolymer incorporating inorganic-organic composite synthetized through hostguest polymerization of polyacrylonitrile within a porous titania structure. Firstly, optimal synthesis procedure for developing composites with improved characteristics was established. The new systems were characterized by FTIR, XRD, TGA and SEM. The performed heavy metal adsorption tests indicated that the alginate matrix presents a higher affinity for Cu ions, relative to Zn and Ni ions and a higher efficiency relative to the reference TiO2 beads.