l-Cysteine functionalized bagasse cellulose nanofibers for mercury(II) ions adsorption

Presence of mercury ions in water, even in trace amounts, is a serious environmental hazard. Hence, there is imperative need to develop innovative and environmentally-friendly materials for their removal from wastewaters. In the present study, cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) extracted from bagasse was esterified with l-cysteine to yield thiol and amine functionalized green material (Cys-CNFs) for removal of Hg2+ ions. The Cys-CNFs were well characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR, EDS and XRD and evaluated for selective removal of Hg2+ ions from the simulated wastewater. It was observed that Cys-CNFs adsorb Hg2+ ions even at a very low concentration of 1.0mg/L and it exhibited a maximum adsorption capacity of 116.822mgg-1. Kinetic analysis of the data revealed that pseudo-second order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm were followed for adsorption of Hg2+ ions.