Fabrication of a waste cotton fabrics-based nanosystem for simultaneous removal of Cu(II) and Pb(II)

Abstract

Herein, a waste cotton fabrics-based nanosystem was fabricated to simultaneously remove copper (Cu(II)) and lead ions (Pb(II)) from water and soil. Therein, carboxyl-functionalized zinc oxide microsphere (ZnO–COOH) with peanut shape was carried by cotton fabric (CF) to get CF/ZnO–COOH nanosystem. CF/ZnO–COOH with a good foldable property possessed a high removal capacity for Cu(II) and Pb(II) via electrostatic attraction and chelation. The result indicated that their removal efficiencies of CF/ZnO–COOH could reach over 95% after 2 h. The adsorption process was consistent with Langmuir (R2 = 0.9905 of Cu(II) and R2 = 0.9846 of Pb(II)) and pseudo-second-order kinetic models (R2 = 0.9999 of Cu(II) and R2 = 0.9999 of Pb(II)). The thermodynamic data showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and exothermic. Additionally, CF/ZnO–COOH also possessed a high fixation ability for Cu(II) and Pb(II) in sand-soil column, especially for Pb(II) (15 cm, 0.4 μg kg−1). Therefore, this wok provides an environmentally friendly and efficient way to remove Cu(II) and Pb(II) from water and soil concurrently.