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A new composite absorbent with multifunctional and environmental-friendly structures was prepared using chitosan, diatomite and polyvinyl alcohol as the raw materials, and glutaraldehyde as a cross-linking agent. The structure and morphology of the composite absorbent, and its adsorption properties of Hg(II) in water were characterized with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) measurements and ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectra. The effect of the pH value and contact time on the removal rate and absorbance of Hg(II) was discussed. The adsorption kinetic model and static adsorption isotherm and regeneration of the obtained composite absorbent were investigated. The results indicated that the removal of Hg(II) on the composite absorbent followed a rapid adsorption for 50 min, and was close to the adsorption saturation after 1 h, which is in accord with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. When the pH value, contact time and the mass of the composite absorbent was 3, 1 h and 100 mg, respectively, the removal rate of Hg(II) on the composite absorbent reached 77%, and the maximum adsorption capacity of Hg(II) reached 195.7 mg g−1.

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Two series of nanocomposite films were prepared from waterborne poly(ester-urethane) and chitin whisker with and without ultrasound treatment coded as CW/WPU and CHW/WPU, respectively. The effects of ultra-sonification method and chitin whisker content on the chemical compositions, crystallization behavior and miscibility were studied by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WXRD), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermal stability and mechanical properties of the films were measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile test, respectively. The results revealed that both nanocomposite films exhibited a certain degree of miscibility when chitin whisker content was lower than 30 wt%, resulting in higher thermal stability and tensile strength than the pure waterborne poly(esterurethane) film. Interestingly, the composite films CW/WPU with ultrasound treatment possessed better miscibility, storage modulus, thermal stability and tensile strength than those without ultrasound treatment over the entire composition range studied here. The difference can be attributed to the relatively higher dispersion level of whisker within poly(ester-urethane) matrix resulting in relatively stronger entanglement and interaction between both components. The ultrasound treatment can effectively improve the miscibility and mechanical properties of the casting nanocomposite films with nano-meter size chitin whisker added. This indicated that the structure, miscibility and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite films depended significantly on the preparation method.

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