Covalently bonded ionic liquid onto cellulose for fast adsorption and efficient separation of Cr(VI): Batch, column and mechanism investigation

Abstract Combining the advantages of both cellulose and ionic liquid, ionic liquid functionalized cellulose (ILFC) as adsorbent was prepared through radiation grafting glycidyl methacrylate onto cellulose microsphere following by reaction with ionic liquid 1-aminopropyl-3-methyl imidazolium nitrate. Its adsorption properties towards Cr(VI) were investigated in batch and column experiments. In batch experiments, the adsorption kinetics was well fitted with pseudo-second-order mode with equilibrium time of 2 h and the adsorption capacity reached 181.8 mg/g at pH 2 calculated from Langmuir model. In fixed column, both Yoon-Nelson and Thomas models gave satisfactory fit to experimental data and breakthrough curves, and equilibrium adsorption capacity calculated by Thomas model was 161.0 mg/g. Moreover, ILFC exhibited high selectivity towards Cr(VI) even in synthetic chrome-plating wastewater. Besides, adsorption/desorption test revealed ILFC can be regenerated and reused several times without obvious decrease in adsorbed amount. The adsorption process was demonstrated to anion exchange-reduction mechanism via XPS analysis.