Synthesis of Cu nanoparticles in a chitosan entrapped copolymer matrix for photocatalytic reduction of textile dye and column adsorption of heavy metal ions from water

Abstract Polymer metal nano‐composites (PMNC) were synthesized by integrating different weight percentage of chitosan (CS), N , N ′‐methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) crosslinked poly(acrylic acid‐ co ‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) copolymer and Cu nanoparticles (CuNPs). CuNPs were generated in situ during polymerization by reducing CuSO 4 .5H 2 O with ascorbic acid. The presence of the CuNPs in the polymer network, functionality, crystallinity, morphology, size distribution of the CuNPs, elemental composition, thermal characteristics, network parameters, pH sensitivity, and strength of the composites was evaluated. The CuNP‐loaded PMNC4 composite prepared with 10:1 acrylic acid : hydroxyethyl methacrylate molar ratio, 1 wt% each of initiator and MBA crosslinker and 4 wt% CS showed a photodegradation efficiency of 64% in 5 h for 50 mg/L methyl violet dye in water. The same polymer showed a rejection of 91.45% and a mass transfer coefficient of 4.14 × 10 −5 cm/s for continuous adsorption of 20 mg/L Pb(II) ion in water in a fixed bed of height 22 mm for an inflow rate of 30 ml/min.