Abstract
Biocompatible and high content grafted carboxymethyl cellulose-gpoly(acrylic acid) powder was successfully synthesized in an aqueous system, and used as adsorbents for the removal of Cu(II) in aqueous solution. The copolymer was characterized by FT-IR and SEM techniques. Graft copolymerization introduced a large number of carboxyl groups in the polymer and caused the micro-surface of the material to be porous. The fundamental adsorption behaviors of the material were studied. The adsorption kinetics was well fitted with pseudo-second order equation, while the adsorption isotherm preferred to be described the Langmuir equation. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained from the Langmuir model was 154.32 mg/g, indicating that the adsorption capacity of carboxymethyl cellulose was improved remarkably after grafting poly(acrylic acid). Moreover, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) has been used to investigate the adsorption mechanisms at molecular levels, which revealed that carboxyl groups are facile to form bidentate carboxylates with metal ions. Thus, this environment friendly copolymer will be a promising candidate for application in removal of heavy metal ions.