Ultrasonic-assisted synthesis of superabsorbent hydrogels based on sodium lignosulfonate and their adsorption properties for Ni2+

Abstract Nowadays, the attention of both academic and industrial research is paid to the novel materials based on renewable organic resources. Sodium lignosulphonate (SLS) is selected in this study to synthesize novel superabsorbent hydrogels by ultrasonic polymerization. The structure, morphology and stability of SLS-based hydrogel were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Under the optimal condition, SLS-based hydrogel possesses the water absorbency of 1328 g·g −1 in distilled water and 110 g·g −1 in 0.9 wt% NaCl solution. In addition, the prepared SLS-hydrogel as an adsorbent was applied to remove Ni 2+ from an aqueous solution in virtue of its low cost and favorable adsorption capacity. The various experimental conditions that influence the adsorption capacity were investigated such as temperature (20–60 °C), pH (2.0–7.0), contact time (0–360 min) and initial concentration of the Ni 2+ solution (100–600 mg·L −1 ). Then the adsorption capability could reach 293 mg·g −1 under optimal conditions. The results revealed that the adsorption behavior is spontaneous and endothermic. Furthermore, it was observed that the adsorption mechanism and adsorption equilibrium data obeyed pseudo-second-order kinetic and Freundlich models.