Cellulose

, Volume 21, Issue 3, pp 1655–1665 | Cite as

Cellulose nanocrystals as promising adsorbents for the removal of cationic dyes

  • Rasim Batmaz
  • Nishil Mohammed
  • Masuduz Zaman
  • Gagan Minhas
  • Richard M. Berry
  • Kam C. Tam
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) prepared from cellulose fibre via sulfuric acid hydrolysis was used as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution. The effects of pH, adsorbent dosage, temperature, ionic strength, initial dye concentration were studied to optimize the conditions for the maximum adsorption of dye. Adsorption equilibrium data was fitted to both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models, where the Langmuir model better described the adsorption process. The maximum adsorption capacity was 118 mg dye/g CNC at 25 °C and pH 9. Calculated thermodynamic parameters, such as free energy change (ΔG = −20.8 kJ/mol), enthalpy change (ΔH = −3.45 kJ/mol), and entropy change (ΔS = 0.58 kJ/mol K) indicates that MB adsorption on CNCs is a spontaneous exothermic process. Tunability of the adsorption capacity by surface modification of CNCs was shown by oxidizing the primary hydroxyl groups on the CNC surface with TEMPO reagent and the adsorption capacity was increased from 118 to 769 mg dye/g CNC.

Keywords

Cellulose nanocrystal Dye removal Water treatment Methylene blue Adsorption 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

Rasim Batmaz (RB) thanks the Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey for supporting his research at University of Waterloo, Canada. RB wishes to acknowledge Parinaz Akhlaghi for several helpful discussion on this subject. The authors would also like to acknowledge FP Innovations and CelluForce for the supply of CNC for this research. This work is also supported by NSERC, CFI Canada.

Supplementary material

10570_2014_168_MOESM1_ESM.docx (358 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 359 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Rasim Batmaz
    • 1
  • Nishil Mohammed
    • 1
  • Masuduz Zaman
    • 1
  • Gagan Minhas
    • 1
  • Richard M. Berry
    • 2
  • Kam C. Tam
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo Institute for NanotechnologyUniversity of WaterlooWaterlooCanada
  2. 2.CelluForce Inc.MontrealCanada

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