Synthesis of a bioadsorbent from jute cellulose, and application for aqueous Cd (II) removal

A low-cost, high-adsorption-capacity, eco-friendly bioadsorbent for removing Cd²⁺ from aqueous solution is reported. J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was prepared by hydrolysis of the grafted copolymer, which was synthesized by free radical polymerization of acrylamide (AM) with jute fibers (JSE) pretreated by continuous screw-extrusion steam explosion. Fourier transform infrared and solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, confirmed that amino and carboxylate groups were introduced into J-g-P(AM-co-AANa). X-ray diffraction showed that the crystallinity of J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was significantly lower than that of JSE. The surface morphology of bioadsorbent was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption capacity of Cd²⁺ on J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was evaluated for different solution pH values, contact times, and initial Cd²⁺ concentrations. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and the rate controlling step was chemisorption. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted by the Freundlich model, and the adsorption process was multilayer adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity was 344.8 mg/g, which indicated that the bioadsorbent was effective for removing Cd²⁺ from aqueous solution.