Grafted TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofiber embedded with modified magnetite for effective adsorption of lead ions

Abstract According to the World Health Organization, nearly a billion people do not have incoming to pure drinking water and much of that water is contaminated with high levels of heavy elements. In this study, adsorption of lead ions has been studied by nanocomposites which prepared through acrylic acid grafting and amino-functionalized magnetized (FM-NPs) TEMPO-oxidized cellulose nanofiber (TEMPO-CNF). The amino-functionalized magnetite was acting as a crosslinked. The crystallinity of TEMPO-CNF was 75 with a 4–10 nm diameter range, while the average particle size of FM-NPs was 30 nm. The adsorption studies illustrated that the elimination efficiency of lead ions was 80% by the prepared nanocomposite that includes a minimum amount of crosslinker (1%), which demonstrated that the magnetic grafted oxidized cellulose nanofiber nanocomposite is a promising green adsorbent material to eliminate heavy metal ions and is additionally easy to get rid of due to its magnetic property. The kinetics and isotherms studied found that the sorption reaction follows a pseudo-second-order model (R2 = 0.997) and Freundlich model (R2 = 0.993), respectively, this indicated that the adsorption of lead ion occurs within the pores and via the functional groups present on the nanocomposite.