New magnetic cellulose nanobiocomposites for Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions removal: kinetics, thermodynamics and analytical evaluation

Magnetic cellulose nanobiocomposites have been designed and synthesized from sugarcane bagasse to develop new and adequacy adsorbents for heavy metals adsorption from water. In this study, three different ways were followed for three nanocomposites’ preparation: (1) coating Fe3O4 through preparation of dissolved cellulose in (7% NaOH and 12% urea) aqueous solution (NFC1), (2) coating Fe3O4 with cellulose through the co-precipitation (NFC2) and (3) crosslinking the cellulose and Fe3O4 with formaldehyde (NFC3). The high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM) images confirmed the particle size was ranged from 6 to 25 nm. The three novel nanocomposites’ characterization was accomplished by study of surface area, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The sorption feature of NFC1, NFC2 and NFC3 toward Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions was explored using the batch equilibrium technique with various experimental controlling parameters. The efficiency of NFC1 appears to be the best for removal of Pb(II) and Cu(II) (3150 and 2150 μmol g−1) and NFC2 more adequate nanocomposite for removal of Cd(II) 800 μmol g−1. The optimum time was proceeded via fast sorption equilibrium at 5–30 min and better fitted with the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Adsorption isotherm obeys Langmuir isotherm that provides better model than the Freundlich isotherm model. According to the thermodynamic parameters, the adsorption was dominated by enthalpic rather than the entropic changes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.