Cellulose-g-poly-(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) polymeric bioadsorbent for the removal of toxic inorganic pollutants from wastewaters

Cellulose biopolymer was functionalized by free graft copolymerization and used as a new adsorbent to eliminate toxic inorganic pollutants from wastewater. Functional graft copolymers from cellulose were characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, XRD, TGA, and SEM-EDX techniques.Cellulose-g-poly-(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) polymer adsorbent showed high adsorption capacities for the Cd2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ toxic metal ions, which were evidenced by the comparison with unmodified cellulose-richsamples. Cellulose-g-poly-(acrylamideco-acrylic acid) polymer adsorbent was optimized with various adsorption parameters such as the effect of pH, contacttime, temperature, and metallic ions concentration. The maximum monolayer capacity q(m) calculated for Cd2+, Cu2+, Pb2+, Zn2+ were 101.73, 61.84, 209.64, and 55.04 mgg(-1) respectively. Thus, these results proved that cellulose-g-poly-(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) graft copolymer adsorbent from cellulose-rich biomass could potentially be used for the removal of pollutants from wastewater.