Abstract
This study investigated the removal of phenol oxidant using chitosan as a water treatment. p-Quinone was used as a model phenol oxidant. The capability of chitosan was kinetically investigated based on the molecular weight (MW) and deacetylation degree (DD). Temperature and pH were also examined as reaction conditions. The molecular weight of chitosan was determined using Viscometry. Chitosan's DD range was determined using colloidal titration. The molecular weight and deacetylation degree of chitosan were 6.42×102≤MW[g·mol-1]≤1.24×106, 83.1≤DD[%]≤90.0. p-Quinone was more easily removed by chitosan than other phenols. The half life period was 3.7h, assuming a first-order reaction. The overall reaction rate constant was evaluated in a free suspended separation system. Its level was sufficiently high, yielding an experimental range of MW (3.89×105≤MW[g·mol-1]≤1.24×106) and DD (83.1≤DD[%]≤88.6). The basic pH range in an aqueous phase was suitable for p-quinone separation. Amino groups tended to remain in basic solutions rather than in acidic pHs. Increasing the reaction temperature to (282≤T[K]≤328) increased the overall rate constants across molecular weights and deacetylation degrees. The activation energy obtained was 45 [kJ·mol-1]. This suggested that the removal reaction mechanism included a chemical reaction, because the activation energy exceeded that of the physical phenomena.
