Preparation of nanocrystalline cellulose-montmorillonite composite via thermal radiation for liquid-phase adsorption

Nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) is an excellent binding agent used in various kinds of manufactures. Herein, NCC was used as a binding agent for montmorillonite (MMT) clay before producing composite (NcMMT), which will be utilized as an adsorbent for methylene blue. The morphology of the composite was investigated by using field emission - scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), while the characterization was conducted by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Two adsorption isotherm models, Freundlich and Langmuir models were used to evaluate the adsorption equilibrium. Adsorption kinetics was assessed by using pseudo-first and second order models. The result indicates that NcMMT is better adsorbent than MMT and NCC; as evidenced by the adsorption capacity (Q(m)) which is 183.8, 140.6 and 96.8 mg/g (at 60 degrees C) for NcMMT, MMT, and NCC, respectively. The adsorption kinetics was more reasonable described by the pseudo second order. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.