Novel carboxymethyl cellulose based nanocomposite membrane: Synthesis, characterization and application in water treatment

Abstract

Significant efforts have been made to develop composite membranes with high adsorption efficiencies for water treatment. In this study, a carboxymethyl cellulose-graft-poly(acrylic acid) membrane was synthesized in the presence of silica gel, which was used as an inorganic support. Then, different amounts of bentonite were introduced to the carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) grafted networks as a multifunctional crosslinker, and nanocomposite membranes were prepared. The nanocomposite membranes were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, which revealed their compositions and surface morphologies. The novel synthesized nanocomposite membranes were utilized as adsorbents for the removal of crystal violet (CV) and cadmium (Cd (II)) ions, which were selected as representatives of a dye and a heavy metal, respectively. We explored the effects of various parameters, such as time, pH, temperature, initial concentration of adsorbate solution and amount of adsorbent, on membrane adsorption capacity. Furthermore, the kinetic, adsorption isotherm models and thermodynamic were employed for the description of adsorption processes. The maximum adsorption capacities of membranes for CV and Cd (II) ions were found to be 546 and 781 mg g−1, respectively. The adsorption of adsorbate ions by all types of nanocomposite membranes followed pseudo-second-order kinetic model and was best fit with the Freundlich adsorption isotherm. The results indicated that the synthesized nanocomposite membrane is an efficient adsorbent for the removal of cationic dye and metal contaminants from aqueous solution during water treatment.