Synthesis of clay-cellulose biocomposite for the removal of toxic metal ions from aqueous medium.

Clay-cellulose biocomposite (CCB) was synthesized in the present study. Spin and pressure-induced heating was applied to aggregate exfoliated clay tubules and cellulose using polyethylene glycol as an intermediate. The synthesized CCB was modified in the presence of NaOH at high temperature to obtain negative surface charge on the adsorbent. Physico-chemical properties of CCB were evaluated using different characterization techniques including Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy. The efficiency of the synthesized biocomposite for Pb(II) and Cd(II) removal from water was studied via laboratory scale experiments. The adsorption kinetics of Pb(II) and Cd(II) onto CCB was well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The maximum Langmuir adsorption capacity of CCB was found to be 389.78 and 115.96 mg g-1 for Pb(II) and Cd(II), respectively. Fixed-bed column studies were conducted for the adsorption system to compare the adsorption performance of CCB in continuous mode.