Abstract
Mercury contamination in drinking water is a worldwide problem due to its severely harming effects on the human body. A nanostructured natural bioadsorbent, carboxycellulose nanofiber extracted from raw moringa plant using the nitro-oxidation method (termed NOCNF), capable of effectively remediating this problem has been demonstrated. Nitro-oxidation is a simple approach that can extract carboxylated nanocellulose directly from raw biomass. In this study, the produced NOCNF contained a large density of carboxylate groups on the cellulose surface (0.97 mmol/g), capable of removing Hg2+ ions by simultaneous electrostatic-interactions and mineralization processes. Using the Langmuir analysis, the adsorption results indicated that the highest Hg2+ removal capacity of this NOCNF was 257.07 mg/g, which is higher than most of the reported values. The interactions between Hg2+ and NOCNF were further characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), transmission electron microscopy with electron diffraction and wide-angle X-ray diffraction methods, suggesting the existence of two distinct removal mechanisms: predominant adsorption at low Hg2+concentrations (< 250 ppm) and predominant mineralization at high Hg2+ concentrations (> 1000 ppm). The applications of NOCNF were illustrated in both suspension form, as an adsorbent/coagulant, and dry powder form using filtration column. The results indicated that NOCNF in suspension exhibited a higher maximum removal efficiency of 81.6% as compared to the dry state of 74.3%. This work demonstrated the feasibility of extracting nanostructured adsorbents from biomass feedstocks to tackle the Hg2+ contamination problem in drinking water.
Graphic abstract
Cellulose nanofibers, extracted from Moringa plant using the nitro-oxidation method, exhibit excellent adsorption capacity for Mercury (II) removal.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support for this work was provided by a grant from the Polymer Program of the Division of Materials Science in the National Science Foundation (DMR-1808690). The authors thank Drs. Chung-Chueh Chang and Yuan Xue at the Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center in Stony Brook University for the assistance of the TGA, TEM and AFM measurements, and Ms. Katie Wooton at the Facility for Isotope Research and Student Training in Stony Brook University for the assistance of the ICP-MS analysis.
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The financial support of this study is provided by the National Science Foundation (DMR-1808690).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Materials were provided by NK and SC from Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation; Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by HC and EF. The first draft of the manuscript was written by HC and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript; Authors have no conflicts of interest; Data and material are all transparent.
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Chen, H., Sharma, S.K., Sharma, P.R. et al. Nitro-oxidized carboxycellulose nanofibers from moringa plant: effective bioadsorbent for mercury removal. Cellulose 28, 8611–8628 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04057-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04057-5