Study of tentacle-like cationic macroporous cellulose spherical adsorbent for heavy metals

The rational structure and functional ligands design are of great significance to prepare high-performance adsorbents in the application. Herein, macroporous cellulose beads derived from pine needles with tentacle-like functionalized ligands are developed for heavy metal ions adsorption. The macroporous structure is generated via templated assistance, which endows the beads with high permeability, and the kinetic experiments reveal the fast adsorption rate within 40 min. The glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) serve as monomers to fabricate tentacle-like polymer chains on the beads and then m0odified with iminodiacetic acid (IDA). The grafted polymers increase the ligand density of IDA, which provides more binding sites for heavy metal ions. As a result, the adsorption experiments indicate that the prepared adsorbent shows a high adsorption capacity of 300.12, 240.62, 216.41 mg/g for copper (II), manganese (II), and nickel (II), respectively, which confirm the high performance of the adsorbents. On the basis of these results, this work not only provides a promising candidate for the heavy metal ions treatment, but also expands an approach of high-value utilization of biomass.