Generally we use chitosan to remove heavy metals.
Please help me if you have some fruitful documents.
You can found below a published work of our team about an application exemple for water treatment by using plant origin polysaccharides (mucilage), it can be the same for the animal origin polysaccharides (chitosan).
Hope that it will be useful for you.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273128359_Improvement_of_electrocoagulation-electroflotation_treatment_of_effluent_by_addition_of_Opuntia_ficus_indica_pad_juice
Kind regards.
Hocine Remini
Article Improvement of electrocoagulation-electroflotation treatment...
Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, obtained by deacetylating chitin. Chitosan is water soluble and a bioadhesive which readily binds to negatively charged surfaces, so it is theorized that chitosan can be used to precipitate out anionic impurities.
http://inveniojournal.com/the-effectiveness-of-the-natural-polymers-chitosan-polyglutamic-acid-and-moringa-oleifera-seeds-in-water-purification/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878535210001334
various references on use of chitosan is given in this article
The chitosan is a biopolymer that is considered an eco-friendly and efficient alternative of biological origin. Chitosan has become an actor in water treatment. Its use in coagulation/flocculation, adsorption and chitosan-assisted ultrafiltration processes.
By its properties of non-toxicity and biodegradability, chitosan can represent an effective substitute for mineral salts and synthetic polymers for the removal of turbidity in the treatment of drinking water but has the defect of increasing the TOC of the treated water.
Materials of biological origin such as chitosan appear to provide alternative and innovative solutions. This amino polysaccharide has great potential in water treatment due to its biological nature, its origin (obtained mainly from waste from the fishing industry), its non-toxicity, its polycationic character which distinguishes it from other polysaccharides and natural polymers, and its technological versatility. This biopolymer has indeed aroused growing interest since the 2000s to recover and eliminate contaminants present in industrial effluents due to its wide range of applications.
Regards
You can fabricate Chitosan-Based adsorbents and filters of various forms using several techniques for using in water treatment.
I can share you a link where you can get some ideas about various techniques and designs although the writing focuses on biomaterials.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4420-7_18
Usually chitosan can bind heavy metals by adsorption due to their own amino surface groups. This effect can be improved with the presence of nanomaterials. I recommend the following article:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118472