A chelating cellulose adsorbent for the removal of Cu(II) from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Regenerated cellulose wood pulp was grafted with the vinyl monomer glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) using ceric ammonium nitrate as initiator and was further fuctionalised with imidazole to produce a novel adsorbent material, cellulose-g-GMA-imidazole. All cellulose, grafted cellulose and functionalized cellulose grafts were physically and chemically characterized using a number of analytical techniques, including elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential thermal analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The cellulose-g-GMA material was found to contain 1.75 mmol g Ϫ1 epoxy groups. These epoxy groups permitted introduction of metal binding functionality to produce the cellulose-g-GMA-imidazole final product. Following characterization, a series of adsorption studies were carried out on the cellulose-g-GMA-imidazole to assess its capacity in the removal of Cu 2ϩ ions from solution. Cellulose-g-GMA-imidazole sorbent showed an uptake of ϳ70 mg g Ϫ1 of copper from aqueous solution. The adsorption process is best described by the Langmuir model of adsorption, and the thermodynamics of the process suggest that the binding process is mildly exothermic. The kinetics of the adsorption process indicated that copper uptake occurred within 30 min and that pseudo-second-order kinetics best describe the overall process.

Design of a novel cellulose-based adsorbent for use in heavy metal recovery from aqueous waste streams

“…In a typical synthesis of cellulose-g-GMA-imidazole, the same technique was used as described in our previous publication [13]. The regenerated cellulose (Chemcell) originated from Borregaard Industries, Sarpsborg, Norway.…”

Equilibrium and Kinetic Studies of Cu(II), Ni(II) and Cd(II) Adsorption from Aqueous Solution by Chemically Modified Corn Cob

“…Indirect modification by graft copolymerization is one of the alternative procedures that provided high efficient cellulose-based metal adsorbent 5) . The grafted cellulose with various functionality for heavy metal adsorption have been reported such as acrylic acid 10) , acrylamide 11) , acrylnonitrile 12) 13) and glycidyl methacrylate 14) . Acrylic acid and acrylamide contain carboxyl (-COOH) and amide (-CONH2) groups.…”

Sorption of copper by chemically modified aspen wood fibers

“…Copper (Cu 2+ ) is one of the most widespread heavy metal contaminants in the environment (O'Connell et al, 2006) and one of the most toxic heavy metals to living organisms. High Cu 2+ levels in drinking water can cause vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea and diarrhea.…”

“…Many natural materials such as peat, sawdust, peanut and hazelnut shells have been studied for treating metal-contaminated wastewater (Brown et al, 2000). The results of these studies showed that Cu 2+ sorption using natural materials is effective, efficient, and economical in comparison to traditional methods for water decontamination (O'Connell et al, 2006) because biomass materials are abundant and readily available at a very low cost. Cadmium (Cd 2+ ) sorption to biomass depends on the initial pH of the reaction mixture because pH dramatically influences surface activities of sorbents (Horsfall and Spiff, 2004 .…”