Biological and environmental studies on pectin-zirconium (IV) phosphate, a biopolymer doped hybrid cation exchanger

Pectin, a biological macromolecule-doped zirconium (IV) Phosphate is reported as a novel ion exchanger which has been characterized by few physico-chemical characterization techniques such as FTIR analysis, XRD, TGA/DTA, DSC, SEM study, UV–vis spectrophotometry and elemental analysis. The method of synthesis along with ion exchange characterization has also been reported including ion exchange capacity, thermal stability, concentration and elution study. Adsorption study has been explored for few alkaline earths and transition metal ions in several acidic media. Based on adsorption study, it has been found that the reported ion exchanger has shown enantioselectivity for mercury (II) ions. Hence, few binary separations have been performed on lab-made samples depicting that the material would be of great importance in water pollution control. In addition to it, antimicrobial activity of the material on some microorganisms has been studied revealing the highest antimicrobial activity towards Ecoli ESS 2231 which would be added application in terms of water purification. Moreover, the exchanger is found stable up to 200 °C by retaining 90.6 % of its capacity whereas up to 400 °C, it exhibits decrement by retaining 75.5 % of its ion exchange capability which provides a way to explore applications of the exchanger at a higher range of temperatures. The schematic diagram for the synthesis of pectin zirconium (IV) phosphate. [Display omitted] •Biopolymer pectin is included to synthesize novel biopolymer hybrid macromolecule as a cation exchanger.•The synthesized material shows highest ion exchange capacity among others, reported earlier.•The synthesized material depicts antibacterial characteristics, proving its worth in water purification processes.•Excellent thermal stability and selective adsorption for Hg (II) ions made it useful for environmental applications.