Silver Nanoparticles Supported onto TEMPO-Oxidized Cellulose Nanofibers for Promoting Cd²⁺ Cation Adsorption

Abstract

Nanocellulose constitutes a sustainable and biobased solution both as an efficient sorbent material for water treatment and as support for other inorganic nanomaterials with sorbent properties. Herein, we report the synthesis of a nanocomposite by deposition of in situ-generated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) onto TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofibers (TOCNFs). Following an in-depth analytical investigation, we unveil for the first time the key role of AgNPs in enhancing the adsorption efficiency of TOCNF toward Cd 2+ ions, chosen as model heavy metal contaminants. The obtained nanocomposite shows a value of Cd 2+ sorption capacity at equilibrium from 150 mg L −1 ion aqueous solutions of ∼116 mg g −1 against the value of 78 mg g −1 measured for TOCNF alone. A combination of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses suggests that Cd 2+ ions are mainly adsorbed in the neighborhood of AgNPs. However, XPS characterization allows us to conclude that the role of AgNPs relies on increasing the exposure of carboxylic groups with respect to the original TOCNF, suggesting that these groups are still responsible for absorption. In fact, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) analysis of the Cd−K edge excludes a direct interaction between Ag 0 and Cd 2+ , supporting the XPS results and confirming the coordination of the latter with carboxyl groups.

Nanostructured Gelatin Aerogel for Selective Recovery of Aqueous Pd(II) Based on Coordination to the Peptide Backbone

“…Peptides and carbohydrate polymers are easily accessible inexpensive biomaterials that display well-known affinities toward selected metal ions because of their functional groups. Amino-, carboxylic-, and sulfur-containing functional groups can be excellent active sites for selective metal ion binding . Coordination chemistry based considerations provide many possibilities to identify and tune the sorption properties of these biomaterials depending on the targeted metal ion.…”