Study on the preparation of a novel acrylic modified magnetic chitosan adsorbent and the adsorption behavior on Ga (III)

[Display omitted] •Acrylic modified magnetic chitosan shows excellent adsorption performance as an adsorbent for gallium in acidic solutions.•Acrylic acid was grafted and glutaraldehyde was crosslinked onto chitosan.•The adsorption process fits the pseudo second-order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm model.•After four cycles of desorption and reuse, the regeneration rate decreased from the initial 91.47% to 73.3%.•The adsorbent was characterized using FTIR, XPS etc. to suggest a possible adsorption mechanism. In the current study, a novel acrylic modified magnetic chitosan adsorbent (M- AA −CTS) was prepared, and then characterized using SEM, FTIR, and XPS. The preparation conditions, adsorption conditions, adsorption kinetics and thermodynamics were also studied. FTIR results indicate that acrylic acid is grafted onto the amino groups of chitosan in the form of poly acrylic acid and the amino groups are also crosslinked with glutaraldehyde. For the preparation process, the removal efficiency of Ga (III) ions is higher when the amount of acrylic acid is 3 mL, the reaction temperature is 308 K, the crosslinking time is 80 min, and the amount of glutaraldehyde is 0.6 mL. During the adsorption process, the higher adsorption capacity of Ga (III) ions can be achieved under the condition of the initial concentration of Ga (III) ions 50 mg/L, the adsorbent dose 0.05 g, the oscillation temperature 308 K and pH 3. The study on the adsorption kinetic indicates that the adsorption follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The study on isotherm adsorption and thermodynamic indicates that the adsorption isotherm fits the Langmuir isotherm model better and the saturated adsorption capacity of Ga (III) ions on M−CTS−AA can reach 183.09 mg/g. Study on desorption and regeneration shows that after four cycles of desorption and reuse, the regeneration rate decreased from the initial 91.47 % to 73.3 %.