Tuning and Characterizing Nanocellulose Interface for Enhanced Removal of Dual-Sorbate (As^V and Cr^VI) from Water Matrices

Abstract

Cellulose nanofiber (CNF) is one of the emerging green candidates for the various domains due to its sustainability, abundance availability, and high surface area. However, its effectiveness in the environmental aspect of toxic heavy metal removal required improvement by tuning the interface between CNF and heavy metals, and by understanding removal mechanisms. Herein, we synthesized four types of surface-functionalized CNF from waste coffee-filters for enhanced uptake of As V and Cr VI in the different water matrices. Among them, Fe 3+ -cross-linked CNF-Fe 2 O 3 (FF) and mussel-inspired dopamine conjugated CNF (DP) demonstrated significant performance in water treatment for As V and Cr VI , respectively, than commercial activated carbon based adsorbents. Combined X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, and data fitting elucidated the complexation mode of As V and Cr VI to each CNF derivative which suggested that As V binds through a bidentate-binuclear complex and that Cr VI binds to catecholic OH as a trinuclear complex. Simultaneously, the transformation of harmful Cr VI into nontoxic Cr III was observed in DP which supports their potential practical applications. Taken together, our comprehensive data not only provide the material fabrication, interface behavior, and impact of water quality parameters in simulated and real contaminated waters but also explore the holistic understanding of the heavy metal removal mechanism and adsorbate−adsorbent interfacial interaction of these novel CNF derivatives.

Mussel-Inspired Surface Engineering for Water-Remediation Materials

“…Thus, another effective strategy to improve the adsorption performance of PDA-based adsorbents is to form ultrathin PDA coatings on 1D and 2D nanomaterials that possess high specific surface area. Many kinds of materials, such as graphene oxide (GO), 132,133 carbon nanotubes, [134][135][136] cellulose nanofibers, 137 zeolites, 138 porous CaCO 3 , 139 and mesoporous silica, 140 have been utilized as supports to enhance the surface area of PDA, and the obtained composite adsorbents with PDA coatings have been applied for efficient removal of various contaminants such as dyes, heavy metals, and bacteria from wastewater.…”

Atomic-scale investigation of MgO growth on fused quartz using angle-dependent NEXAFS measurements

“…21,22 These measurements also give information about the hybridization taking place among various atoms/ ions, which is a better process to understand the interaction among atoms during the lm/crystal growth. 23,24 During growth, the formation of chemical bonds in different directions occurs, which leads to the existence of anisotropic chemical bonds. In the presence of anisotropy of the chemical bonds, the contribution of individual absorption transitions is different at different angles.…”

Polydopamine Induced Wettability Switching of Cellulose Nanofibers/n-Dodecanethiol Composite Aerogels

“…Recently, PDA surface chemistry has been widely applied to cellulose-based materials including natural fiber [28][29][30], cellulose nanocrystals [31,32], electrospun cellulose nanyrans [33][34][35], and CNF [36][37][38] to facilely fabricating functional materials. Here, we report a facile approach to prepared hydrophobic CNF aerogels.…”