Bentonite/amino-functionalized cellulose composite as effective adsorbent for removal of lead: Kinetic and isotherm studies

In this study, bentonite/amino-functionalized cellulose composite (BAC) adsorbent was synthesized by intercalating the hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide surfactant (HDTMA) into bentonite followed by exfoliating the HDTMA-modified bentonite (MB) into amino-functionalized cellulose (AC). The physicochemical properties of BAC were evaluated by FTIR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, TGA, and Zeta potential measurement. A series of batch mode adsorption experiments were carried out to identify the optimal adsorption conditions as a function of experimental variables such as pH of solution, uptake time, initial Pb2+ concentrations, BAC dosage, and assess both percent removal (%) and Pb2+ uptake (mg g−1). The result demonstrated that the synergetic advantage of combining HDTMA-modified bentonite (MB) and amino-functionalized cellulose (AC) in Pb2+ uptake (69 mg g−1) surpassed that of HDTMA-modified bentonite (12.14 mg g−1) and amino-functionalized cellulose (31.33 mg g−1) alone. Further, Pb2+ uptake onto BAC was higher than the HDTMA-modified bentonite/cellulose composite (BC) (42.12 mg g−1) due to the introduction of the amino group to cellulose through grafting with ethylenediamine (EDA). The adsorption of Pb2+ from aqueous solution by BAC fit well with pseudo - 2nd-order kinetic (R2 = 0.998) and Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.999) models. The kinetic study indicated that the active sites in the BAC exhibit heterogeneity and possess different activation energies for chemisorption. The monolayer attachment of Pb2+ onto the BAC surface was realized from the isotherm study, and the maximum predicted adsorption capacity was found to be 71.869 mg g−1. Regeneration studies showed that BAC maintained its good Pb2+ uptake capacity for up to four cycles.