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An all-biomass adsorbent: competitive removal and correlative mechanism of Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+ from multi-element aqueous solutions

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Abstract

It is imperative to develop adsorbents, which have the virtue of cost-effective, eco-friendly and degradable. In this paper, the bio-adsorbent beads were prepared via cross-linking between sodium alginate (SA) and ionic-modified sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-z), of which CMC-z is modified by introducing sulfobetaine as function group. It was employed to eliminate Cu2+, Pb2+and Cd2+ in multi-element aqueous medium. The concentrations of heavy metal ions were determined by the 5100 ICP-OES. The maximum adsorption capacities of Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+ was 212 mg/g, 255 mg/g, 123 mg/g, respectively (C0 = 300 mg/L,T = 278 K). The strength of the attraction between the heavy metal ions and the SA/CMC-z hydrogel beads will be the sequence of Pb2+ > Cu2+ > Cd2+ > Ca2+. The XPS peaks of Ca2+ became pitiable in the competitive system, the C=O, C–O/C–N groups would be involved in the metal gelation process. Strong electron donating ability of functional groups in adsorbents would capture Pb2+, Cu2+and Cd2+ ions. The second-order kinetic model (R2 > 0.99) pointed to interactions between heavy metal ions and SA/CMC-z gel beads that occurred via various types of binding sites and SA/CMC-z beads have heterogeneous surface nature. The heavy metal ions have a high affinity toward the SA/CMC-z hydrogel beads, which can be increased randomness at solution/adsorbent interface during adsorption. The adsorption efficiency in a multicomponent competitive system could be having antagonism effects. After four reaction cycles, the reusability performance exhibited excellent. This study offers a highly promising candidate for the treatment of wastewater contaminated with a mixture of heavy metal.

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Sequence data that support the findings of this study have been deposited. All other data are available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Youth Science Foundation of Gansu Province [Grant Number 20JR10RA295]; the Scientific Research Program of Universities in Gansu Province [Grant Number 2020B-235]; the key talent project of Gansu Province in 2022 [Grant Number 2022RCXM078].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Provincial Key Laboratory of Gansu Higher Education for City Environmental Pollution Control, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730070, China

    Yanping Zheng, Kanjun Sun, Na Wen, Honghong Rao & Helin Ye

  2. Department of Petrochemical Technology, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Yanping Zheng & Baoping Yang

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  1. Yanping Zheng
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  2. Kanjun Sun
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  3. Na Wen
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Correspondence to Baoping Yang.

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Zheng, Y., Sun, K., Wen, N. et al. An all-biomass adsorbent: competitive removal and correlative mechanism of Cu2+, Pb2+, Cd2+ from multi-element aqueous solutions. Polym. Bull. 80, 12619–12640 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-022-04665-6

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