Novel Cellulose Nanofibers/Polyvinyl Alcohol/Polyethyleneimine Nanoparticle for Cu2+ Removal in Water
Abstract In this study, environmentally friendly CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle was obtained by assembling PEI (polyethyleneimine) into CNF/PVA aerogels, which were prepared by freeze-drying method with the help of glutaraldehyde. FTIR results showed that PEI likely assembled into the CNF/PVA aerogel due to appearances of bending vibration of the CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle at 1615cm− 1. BET results further demonstrated that PEI have successfully assembled into aerogel since the specific surface area (22.93m2/g) of CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle was lower than that (56.37m2/g) of CNF/PVA aerogel. SEM results also showed that PEI could obviously regulate the morphology of CNF/PVA aerogel. TGA indicated that CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle was structurally stable at 216.4°C. The adsorption kinetics of the CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle for Cu2+ removal presented good correlations with the Pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption and desorption results showed that the removal rate of 2g/L CNF/PVA/PEI nanoparticle for Cu2+in water could reach more than 93% when the concentration of Cu2+ ranged from 20 to 80mg/L in one hour, and it could still retain more than 80% after 3 cycles.