Easily separated and sustainable cellulose-based adsorbent using a facile two-steps modification for highly efficient methylene blue removal

Abstract

Eco-friendly cellulose-based magnetic adsorbents have attracted great attention in the field of dye adsorption recently. Herein, we utilized the pith of biomass Juncus effusus (JE) to synthesize a novel type of magnetic adsorbents for the treatment of wastewater containing methylene blue (MB). After esterification and magnetization two-steps modification, the obtained magnetic citric acid-modified JE pith powders (M-CA/JEPP) showed outstanding adsorption properties. For 50 mg/L MB dye solution, the adsorption efficiency could reach 98.34% within 10 minutes under basic condition and the maximum adsorption capacity was 293.132 mg/g at 303 K. The adsorption efficiency could also keep a high level in five cycles. Moreover, magnetization overcomes the disadvantages of JE powders density being small which is very difficult to collect, and a 24.8 emu/g saturation magnetization was achieved. In the other words, this magnetic adsorbent has excellent reusability and it is easily to be separated from water, which provides new insights for development of cellulose-based adsorbents to remove dye in aqueous systems.