Immobilization of cellulose extracted from Robinia Pseudoacacia seed fibers onto chitosan: Chemical characterization and study of methylene blue removal

The design of economical adsorbents to remove pollutants from contaminated water is attracting more attention. In this study, cellulose was successfully extracted from Robinia Pseudoacacia seed fibers and immobilized onto chitosan beads. The prepared spherical beads were then used for the biosorption of methylene blue dye from aqueous media. Samples were investigated using several analytical methods, namely FT-IR, XRD, EDX, SEM, and TGA analyses. The adsorption experiments showed that combining cellulose with chitosan improved the removal of methylene blue. The maximum uptake amount of methylene blue using cellulose-chitosan composite beads was 55 mg/g. However, it was about 35 mg/g at 20 degrees C for chitosan beads. The kinetic data complied strongly with the pseudo-second order equation, suggesting that the biosorption phenomenon has predominantly a chemical nature. Overall, the current study has shown a promising technique to design new adsorbents from abundant natural polymers for eliminating cationic dyes from water. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.

Automated summary

This study developed an adsorbent based on cellulose-chitosan composite beads for the removal of methylene blue dye from water. The experimental results showed that the cellulose-chitosan beads exhibited higher adsorption capacity compared to chitosan beads, indicating a promising approach for eliminating cationic dyes.