CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Hydrogels based on gelatin and crosslinked with gum Arabic (HG) have been preparedby thaw freezing method, employing two different concentrations of gum Arabic (15and 50% w/w). Magnetic gels or ferrogels (FG) were prepared by applying the breathin method to incorporate iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles to the HG matrix.The obtained HG and FG were characterized by XRD, FTIR , SEM microscopy andthe FG composition estimated by atomic absorption spectroscopy in terms of the Fecontent.The adsorption of crude oil onto HG and FG was explored achieving very satisfactoryresults. FG was regenerated by washing with toluene maintaining efficiency of almost90% after the fourth cycle.Equilibrium studies were performed to determine the capacity of the prepared FG foradsorption of crude oil from sea water synthetic solutions. The experiments werecarried out as a function of different initial concentrations of oil residue (24 to 240mg/L) exploring different contact times. Equilibrium data were found to fit very wellwith both Freundlich and Langmuir models. In addition, the adsorption of oil onto theFG-15 was explored. This system behavior better fitted by a pseudo-second-orderkinetic model rather than a pseudo-first-order kinetic model.The obtained results showed that the FG prepared by employing 15% of gum Arabicas crosslinker (FG-15) has high removal efficiency of crude oil reaching 1.53 g/g ofFG at pH 5.5.The reached data suggest that the here presented materials may be useful to the furtherdesign of systems or devices intended for the remediation of petroleum spills and/or itsderivatives in marine water as well as other surfaces such as polluted rocks or soil.*Address for Correspondence:Dra. Verónica Lassalle,Dpto.de Química,INQUISURUniversidad Nacional del Sur-CONICET

enviar mensaje