Removal of heavy metal ions and anionic dyes from aqueous solutions using amide-functionalized cellulose-based adsorbents

An efficient, ecofriendly, amide-functionalized cellulose-based porous adsorbent was synthesized by a cross-linking reaction between cellulose filament fibers and bisacrylamide at room temperature. This process is simple, fast and inexpensive, and has significant potential for industrial applications. The prepared material has numerous adsorption sites, resulting in the highly efficient removal of anionic dyes and copper ions from aqueous media. The maximum adsorption capacities of this cellulose-based adsorbent for the dyes Acid Black 1 and Acid Red 18 and for copper ions were 751.8, 417.9, and 51.3 mg g(-1), respectively. Regeneration experiments showed that the removal efficiencies for all model pollutants remained above 92 % after five consecutive recycling trials. These results indicate that amide-functionalized cellulose-based adsorbents could possibly be used to treat industrial wastewaters.