The Influence of Surface Chemistry Upon the Textural, Thermal and Sorption Properties of Apple-Pectin Adsorbent Materials

The aim of this study is to design viable eco-friendly adsorbents that may be further employed for detoxifying living organisms or decontaminating polluted waters of heavy metal ions. Here are highlighted some results concerning the surface chemistry modification of pectins via oxidation of apple-fruits with ozone in water, concentrated hydrogen peroxide or ozone in hydrogen peroxide. The quality and quantity of carboxylic and phenolic functional groups on intact and chemically-modified pectins were established by using the Boehm titration method, which has shown that these have increased in all cases-especially for three times when using ozone in hydrogen peroxide. Textural changes in the surface of were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and adsorption-desorption of nitrogen; by oxidation, both the specific surface area and total volume of pores increase, the most significant one being encountered in the case of the sample oxidized with ozone in hydrogen peroxide (three times and, respectively, four times higher). The thermal behaviour and stability of the oxidized pectins versus intact pectins from apple-fruits was studied by thermogravimetry (TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) in both inert (nitrogen) and oxidative (air) atmospheres; the thermal behaviour indicates just slight modifications due to the appearance of carboxylic and phenolic functional groups, while the overall stability was basically not affected. The sorption properties of these materials were investigated for the immobilization of Pb2+ and Hg2+ from aqueous solutions, by measuring the adsorption isotherms; the chemical modification of pectins by oxidation has significantly improved the adsorption capacity.