Removal of arsenic from aqueous media using zeolite/chitosan nanocomposite membrane

In this work, the removal of arsenic (III) using zeolite/chitosan nanocomposite membranes was studied and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), etc. The water contact angle of the membrane decreased from 74.2 to 59.2° and the porosity of the prepared membranes increased from 20.38 to 45.81% with an increase in the concentration of zeolite. The rejection of arsenic (III) increases with increase in the zeolite loading for 500 and 1000 µg/L; but at 100 and 150 µg/L, the trend was opposite. The membrane with 1.0 [Chi-Z (1.0)] and 1.25 [Chi-Z (1.25)] wt% zeolite showed the highest rejection (>94%) for 1000 µg/L concentration of arsenic trioxide aqueous solution.