Extraction and Characterization of Chitosan Nanoparticle from Clarias Gariepinus (Catfish) and its Potential Application as Bio-Adsorbent in Wastewater Treatment from Textile Industrial Effluents

Fish scale waste is generally discarded in the environment through fish processing industries and local market vendors. It is one of the excellent and efficient renewable bioproducts. Consequently, a number of bioactive compounds have been identified including bioactive peptides, collagen, chitosan, and gelatin which are commercially marketed. In this present study, we used fish scale waste to extract chitosan polysaccharide and generated chitosan nanoparticles in order to use it for the application purposes. The synthesized chitosan nanoparticles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In application, the potential use of fish scale nanoparticles as an adsorbent for textile dye effluent was investigated under optimized conditions. Antimicrobial activity of synthesized chitosan nanoparticles was performed on various pathogens.

The feasibility of using fish scales as low-cost bio-adsorbent for the removal of textile dye was studied on the industrial effluent. Dye adsorption was studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) before and after the dye treatment. The effluent was treated with chitosan nanoparticles and the pH and turbidity of the effluent were measured by BOD and COD assay. The highest flocculation efficiency of chitosan was observed under these conditions. With chitosan nanoparticle treatment, removal of COD was improved to 80% and the turbidity removal efficiency was improved up to 90%. These results show an economically viable methodology for the production of the Polysaccharide-Chitosan from the fish waste extract. Thus, the present study provides an excellent bio-adsorbent chitosan nanoparticle generated from fish scales, which have potential application as an adsorbent in bioremediation like wastewater treatment.