Carboxymethyl cellulose-graft-polyacrylic acid hydrogel: A cost effective and reusable adsorbent for Cu2+

Abstract

APOROUS hydrogel composed of carboxymethyl cellulose grafted with polyacrylic acid CMC-g-PAA was prepared, by using methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as crosslinking agent and ammonium persulfate (APS) as initiator. CMC-g-PAA hydrogel was evaluated as an adsorbent for removal of divalent copper ions from waste water. The effect of different adsorption parameters such as pH, contact time and initial copper ion concentration on removal process from aqueous solution was investigated. Adsorption isotherms for Cu2+ well fitted the Langmuir equation with maximum adsorption capacity 471 mg/g. The kinetics of adsorption process are appropriate to be described with pseudo second order model. The high adsorption capacity and kinetic results prove that CMC-g-PAA can be potentially used as a cost effective adsorbent to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions.