Preparation of carboxymethyl cellulose/graphene composite aerogel beads and their adsorption for methylene blue

Carboxymethyl cellulose/graphene composite aerogel beads (CMC/GAs) were prepared by the easily scaling-up method, i.e., wet spinning-environmental pressure drying method. The influences of the type and concentration of coagulating bath on the formation of aerogel beads were discussed, and the forming mechanism was analyzed. The CMC/GAs was characterized through SEM, XRD, FI-IR, Raman, XPS, electronic universal testing machine and other methods. The CMC/GAs-30 has an average particle size and a mean pore diameter of 3.83 mm and 82 mu m, respectively. The analysis results indicated that the adsorption mechanisms of CMC/GAs on methylene blue (MB) are mainly through the electrostatic interaction. The adsorption process conforms to the Langmuir model (R-2 = 0.9964) and pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R-2 is higher than 0.99). When the particle size of CMC/GAs-30 decreases, the equilibrium adsorption capacity for MB increases. Under the experimental conditions explored, the Langmuir maximum adsorption capacity of CMC/GAs-30 for MB is 222.72 mg.g(-1). The CMC/GAs-30 show good recycle performance in MB adsorption. The removal rate of MB from water by CMC/GAs-30 remained at about 90% after 30-times adsorption-regeneration cycles.

Automated summary

Carboxymethyl cellulose/graphene composite aerogel beads were prepared by a scalable method and their properties were characterized. The adsorption mechanism of the beads on methylene blue was found to be mainly through electrostatic interaction, and they exhibited good recyclability.