Reduction of 4-nitrophenol by a disused adsorbent: EDA-functionalized magnetic cellulose nanocomposite after the removal of Cu2+

In this paper, the fabrication of magnetically separable organic-inorganic hybrid nanoadsorbent via the functionalization of Fe3O4@SiO2@Cellulose with glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and then ethylenediamine (EDA) was studied. The obtained nanocomposite system was characterized using FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDX and VSM analyses. The EDA-functionalized magnetic cellulose exhibited a perfect capability towards removal of Cu2+ as well as Pb2+, Cd2+, Zn2+ and Ni2+ ions from the aqueous solutions. In addition, the influence of pH, contact time and initial concentration of Cu2+ were also investigated on capacity of the new designed cellulose absorbent. The examinations resulted that the adsorption process of Cu2+ is obeyed from the pseudo-second order kinetic model and the Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity of Cu2+ ions on the nanomagnetic cellulose was 81.67 mg/g. The magnetic cellulose after removal of Cu2+ ions was successfully applied as an efficient catalyst system for reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol with excess amounts of NaBH4 in water.