Functionalization of cellulose nanofiber mats with phthalocyanine for decoloration of reactive dye wastewater

Abstract

A versatile method is reported for the preparation of cellulose nanofiber mats immobilized with cobalt tetraaminophthalocyanine (CoPc). This functionalized cellulose nanomaterial was used as an efficient catalyst for the decoloration of reactive dye wastewater. Cellulose acetate was electrospun into nanofiber mats (CA-NM), hydrolyzed with KOH, and then oxidized by NaIO 4 to generate aldehyde groups for CoPc immobilization. The functionalization processes on the nanofiber mats were monitored by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR/FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). We found these CoPc-functionalized nanofiber mats (CoPc-NM) have high adsorption capacity for reactive dye from synthetic wastewater, which enhances the catalytic oxidation rate of reactive dye when H 2 O 2 is present as oxidant. More than 90% of reactive red X-3B can be eliminated by CoPc-NM/H 2 O 2 in 90 min. UV and GC-MS analyses indicate the catalytic oxidation not only breaking the azo linkages but also decomposing the aromatic parts of reactive red X-3B, and the main products are biodegradable aliphatic acids, such as fumaric acid, succinic acid, and maleic acid, etc. Repetitive measurements also show that this CoPc-NM is quite stable and remains efficient with no obvious decrease of catalytic activity.

Effect of a spacer on phthalocyanine functionalized cellulose nanofiber mats for decolorizing reactive dye wastewater

“…After oxidation (Fig. S1(a)), the characteristic absorption peak at 1,739 cm -1 was attributed to the vibration of C=O, suggesting the existence of aldehyde groups on the surface of OC-NM (Ma and Ramakrishna 2008;Chen et al 2011). The obvious decrease of the characteristic peak for the aldehyde group and appearance of the new characteristic peak at 1,565 cm -1 (d N-H ) confirm the successful introduction of TEPA spacer-arm on OC-NM ( Fig.…”

“…Preparation of CoPc-spacer-NM Cellulose acetate nanofiber mats (CA-NM), regenerated cellulose nanofiber mats (RC-NM), oxidized cellulose nanofiber mats (OC-NM) and CoPc functionalized nanofiber mats (CoPc-NM) were prepared as described in our previous work (Chen et al 2011).…”

“…In our previous work, cobalt tetraaminophthalocyanine (CoPc) was covalently immobilized onto electrospun cellulose nanofiber mats (Chen et al 2011). Cellulose was chosen because of its attractive characteristics, such as low cost, good mechanical properties, and high stability in most organic solvents.…”

A review on electrospun bio-based polymers for water treatment

“…The membrane displayed biocidal efficiency above 99%. Moreover, [164] functionalized hydrolysed CA with cobalt tetraaminophthalocyanine (CoPc) for the adsorption of reactive red X-3B dye and more than 95% of the dye was eliminated within 3 hours.…”

Fabrication of a poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) modified macroporous polypropylene membrane via one‐pot reversible‐addition fragmentation chain‐transfer polymerization and click chemistry

“…WCA is not adequate at definitely interpreting the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of porous membranes; this is ascribed to heterogeneity and roughness. 30 As a result, the relative hydrophilicity of the membranes was obtained with nonporous polypropylene films by a WCA test. Figure 6 shows the WCAs of the polypropylene films at each modification stage.…”