Gamma radiation-induced synthesis of TiO2 immobilized on polyacrylonitrile nanocomposite for gallium, strontium and rubidium ions separation from aqueous solutions

In this study, polyacrylonitrile-titanium oxide (PAN@TiO2) nanocomposite was synthesized using gamma radiation to immobilize TiO2 on polyacrylonitrile (PAN) for effective adsorption of gallium, strontium and rubidium ions from simulated radioactive wastewater. The nanocomposite material was characterized using various techniques such as FT-IR, XRD, EDX, SEM, thermal analysis and particle size distribution. In addition, the performance of PAN@TiO2 nanocomposite was evaluated under different conditions such as the initial concentration of Ga3+, Sr2+ and Rb+, shaking time and temperature. The findings indicated that the isotherm as well as kinetic data for adsorption, respectively, fitted to Langmuir model and pseudo-second order model. The monolayer sorption capacity values for Ga3+, Sr2+ and Rb+ were 18.01, 16.90 and 3.79 mg.g−1, respectively. The adsorbent was also tested for real groundwater sample collected from Marsa Alam, Egypt, which contained various cations and anions such as Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3−, Cl−, SO42−, Ga3+, Rb+, Sr2+, Pb2+, Zn2+ and Cu2+. The results revealed that PAN@TiO2 nanocomposite has great potential for the treatment of real groundwater sample contaminated with the studied ions; Ga3+, Sr2+ and Rb+, making it suitable for use in a variety of industrial and environmental applications.