Polyurethane foam-cadmium sulfide nanocomposite with open cell structure: Dye removal and antibacterial applications

Abstract

A new way to synthesize open cell polyurethane foam using cadmium ions has been described. By converting to cadmium sulfide nanoparticles, cadmium ions have been fixed on the open cell polyurethane foam. Open cell polyurethane foam containing CdS nanoparticles (PUF-CdS) was characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The SEM results showed foam containing nanoparticles unlike pure foam (PUF) has an open cell structure. In the following, the applicability of synthesized nanocomposite in wastewater treatment was investigated. The dye removal efficiency of PUF-CdS was investigated with the objective of removing Reactive Orange 122 (RO122) as a model pollutant from aqueous solution. The effects of adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration and initial pH of solution on RO122 removal were studied. Kinetics and equilibrium isotherms for adsorption of dye on PUF-CdS were analyzed. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained from Langmuir isotherm equation was 22.7 mg g−1. The experimental data were adjusted to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The antibacterial activity of PUF-CdS was also investigated against E. coli and S. aureus.