Polyethylenimine coated bacterial cellulose nanofiber membrane and application as adsorbent and catalyst

Bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofiber membranes were simply aminalized by a flush-coating and post-crosslinking method. Firstly, wet BC membranes were flushed through by an aqueous solution of polyethylenimine (PEI) and glycerol diglycidyl ether (GDE) under vacuum suction, then further heated up to 70 °C to crosslink the resultant coating on the surface of the nanofibers. The PEI coated bacterial cellulose (BC@PEI) nanofiber membrane presented excellent adsorption performance for Cu(2+) and Pb(2+) ions from aqueous solutions. Desorption of these ions was achieved using ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid treatment. This cycle of adsorption and desorption was repeated for several times with good remain adsorption performance (over 90%). Furthermore, the adsorbed Cu(2+) ions can be reduced to copper nanoparticles, and showed excellent catalytic performance for methylene blue reduction in aqueous solution. The catalytic performance can remained after several times of usage.