Abstract
Emerging pollutants such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) have received global attention due to their serious threats to human health and the environment. Using polyethyleneimine (PEI) as the modifier, balsa wood (BA), loofah (LF), and pomelo peel (PP) as the raw materials, three bio-sourced adsorbents PEI-BA, PEI-LF, and PEI-PP were prepared and used to remove PFOA from water. The effective grafting of PEI on the surface of agroforestry residues was verified by a combination of scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and elemental analysis. Subsequently, several factors affecting the adsorption efficiency of PEI-BA, PEI-LF, and PEI-PP for PFOA were systematically investigated. By batch experiments, the maximum adsorption capacity at pH 3.0 was determined to be 279.3, 252.1, and 274.3 mg/g within 4 h for PEI-BA, PEI-LF, and PEI-PP, respectively. The adsorption of PFOA was a spontaneous and exothermic process and, the kinetics and isotherms followed the pseudo-second-order model and the Freundlich model, respectively. During the adsorption process, the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions were verified between the adsorbents and PFOA. The presence of cations (Na+, Mg2+, Fe3+, 0.1–10 mM) could promote the adsorption of PFOA as a result of salting-out and bridge effects, whereas anions (NO3−, SO42−, and PO43−, 10 mM) would inhibit the adsorption due to ion competition for available adsorption sites. Finally, three bio-adsorbents could be easily regenerated by an equal volume of ethanol and water, demonstrating their potential for highly efficient removal of PFOA in water.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the joint support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22178156), Key Project of Gansu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 21JR7RA441), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. lzujbky-2021-ct12).
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This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22178156), Key Project of Gansu Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 21JR7RA441), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. lzujbky-2021-ct12).
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Fenghui Qin: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing–original draft; Wenli Yao: Investigation, Formal analysis, Software; Yanlong Liu: Software and Validation; Bingjie Zhu and Qianxi Yang: Validation; Yian Zheng: Conceptualization, Visualization, Supervision, Writing–review and editing, Resources, Funding acquisition.
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Qin, F., Yao, W., Liu, Y. et al. Polyethyleneimine functionalized cellulose-rich agroforestry residues for removing perfluorooctanoic acid: adsorption performance and mechanism. Cellulose 30, 3653–3666 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05090-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-023-05090-2