Encapsulation of Industrial Cationic Pollutants from Aqueous Solution by Nanocrystalline Cellulose and It’s Modified Forms

Abstract

Adsorbents based on nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) were synthesized by two steps selective functionalization at C-2, C-3 position of glucose moiety/structure resulting in an intermediate product, di-aldehyde nanocrystalline cellulose (DANC) and final product, di-carboxylate nanocrystalline cellulose (DCNC). The success of functionalization reaction was confirmed by FTIR and SEM. The removal of basic blue 41 was then investigated by varying process parameters such as initial solution pH, contact time and initial dye concentration. The adsorption kinetics were investigated using pseudo 1st and pseudo 2nd-order model; which fitted well to the later one. Meanwhile, adsorption isotherm study predicted monolayer adsorption mechanism following the Langmuir model with a calculated maximum adsorption capacity of 446.19 mg/L for DCNC, which was much higher compared to DANC and NCC. The reusability studies configured that DCNC can be reused at least 5 cycles without losing significant efficiency. These findings prefigure that DCNC is an excellent biodegradable adsorbent.