Electrocapacitive removal of Na and Cd ions from contaminated aqueous solution using Fe(3)O(4)-poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrene sulfonate) modified chitosan nanosheets.

Chitosan nanosheets (NS) stabilized on poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) was functionalized using Fe(3)O(4) to capacitively remove chloride ions and toxic cadmium ions at optimized pH, concentration, and number of charging cycles. The synthesis procedure was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscope - Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The analyses confirms increase in surface area of the nanocomposite from 41 to 132 m(2)/g and a decrease in crystallinity from 75.3 to 66.9% after nanosheet formation. The highest sorption exchange capacity (SEC) for this work, 93% CdCO(3) removal is achieved at 100 CDI cycles while 82% NaCl removal was achieved at 80 cycles. The SEC% increased with pH during Na ion deionization and decreased with pH during Cd removal. The works shows that chitosan is able to impart advanced structural properties to Fe(3)O(4) and PEDOT and is able to reduce reverse migration of ions from electrodes to bulk solution, leading to higher SEC performance.