Abstract
Site-specific functionalizations are the emergent attention for the enhancement of sorption latent of heavy metals. Limited chemistry has been applied for the fabrication of diafunctionalized materials having potential to tether both environmentally stable oxidation states of chromium (Cr(III) and Cr(VI). Polyaniline impregnated nanocellulose composite (PANI-NCC) has been fabricated using click chemistry and explored for the removal of Cr(III) and Cr(VI) from hydrological environment. The structure, stability, morphology, particle size, surface area, hydrophilicity, and porosity of fabricated PANI-NCC were characterized comprehensively using analytical techniques and mathematical tools. The maximum sorption performance of PANI-NCC was procured for (Cr(III): 47.06 mg g−1; 94.12 %) and (Cr(VI): 48.92 mg g−1; 97.84 %) by equilibrating 0.5 g sorbent dose with 1000 mL of 25 mg L−1 chromium conc. at pH 6.5 and 2.5 for Cr(III) and Cr(VI), respectively. The sorption data showed a best fit to the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The negative value of ∆G° (-8.59 and -11.16 kJ mol−1) and ∆H° (66.46 × 10−1 and 17.84 × 10−1 kJ mol−1), and positive value of ∆S° (26.66 and 31.46 J mol−1K−1) for Cr(III) and Cr(VI), respectively, reflect the spontaneous, feasibility, and exothermic nature of the sorption process. The application of fabricated PANI-NCC for removing both the forms of chromium in the presence of other heavy metals was also tested at laboratory and industrial waste water regime. These findings open up new avenues in the row of high performance, scalable, and economic nanobiomaterial for the remediation of both forms of chromium from water streams.
Highlights
The last few decades have seen enormous growth in the chemical functionalization onto biomaterial for the binding of either cationic or anionic heavy metals
We report a fabrication of polyaniline impregnated nanocellulose composite (PANI-NCC) from pristine cellulose using click chemistry reaction for the remediation of both Cr(III) and Cr(VI) as a model heavy metal from hydrological environment
Pristine cellulose was converted into NC by the protonation of glucosidic oxygen centers, attacked by protons of sulfuric acid
Summary
The last few decades have seen enormous growth in the chemical functionalization onto biomaterial for the binding of either cationic or anionic heavy metals. These biomaterials possess toxicity issue, low sorption performance, slow removal rate, and low reusability (Jain et al 2003; Gupta and Nayak 2012; Qiu et al 2015; Akhavan et al 2015) and do not have aptitude to remove both cationic and anionic forms of heavy metals. Such functionalized biomaterials are proved to be idealistic but impracticable in commercialization. To meet out the desired requirement, polyaniline (PANI) is remarkably recognized as diafunctional green polymer having amine (:NH2) and imine (NH?) functionalities (Wang et al 2014; Appl Water Sci (2017) 7:1827–1839
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