Cellulose-Based Porous Adsorbents with High Capacity for Methylene Blue Adsorption from Aqueous Solutions

A novel cellulose-based porous adsorbent with high adsorption capacity for methylene blue (MB) was prepared by free radical polymerization methods. The obtained polymer grafting rate and dye removal efficiency are as high as 338.64 % and 97.74 %, respectively, when the dosage of monomer is 4.5 g, the polymerization condition is 3 h at 70 degrees C. The cellulose-based adsorbent showed high mechanical properties and good flexibility. The Langmuir isotherm model revealed that the maximum theoretical adsorption capacity of this material for methylene blue was 1734.816 mg g(-1) at pH 9.0 at 313 K, which is higher than the values observed for other adsorbents. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the cellulose-based adsorbent exhibits a typical well-defined porous and interconnected three-dimensional framework structure, which is benefits to dye adsorption. The adsorption kinetics (pseudo first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion models) was also studied, and the pseudo-second-order model fitted MB adsorption better than the pseudo-first-order and intraparticle diffusion models at different initial dye concentrations (500-3000 mg l(-1)). The novel polyacrylic acid-grafted quaternized cellulose (PAA-g-QC) adsorbent is thus potentially useful for the treatment of dye-contaminated wastewater.