A mesoporous nanocellulose/sodium alginate/carboxymethyl-chitosan gel beads for efficient adsorption of Cu2+ and Pb2+

In this study, a novel mesoporous nanocellulose/sodium alginate (SA)/carboxymethyl-chitosan (CMC) aerogel was fabricated using a simple method. The adsorption of Cu2+ and Pb2+ on the aerogel in aqueous solutions was investigated. The obtained aerogel was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission microscope, atomic force microscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption. Furthermore, the fundamental Cu2+ and Pb2+c adsorption behaviours of the mesoporous aerogel, including the effect of pH, adsorption equilibrium and kinetics were investigated. The adsorption isotherms and kinetics of aerogel closely followed the Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order model, respectively, indicating that the adsorption behaviours can be classified as monolayer chemical adsorption. The aerogel exhibited high efficiency for the adsorption of Cu2+ (169.94 mg/g) and Pb2+ (472.59 mg/g). The aerogel maintained a high adsorption capacity for Cu2+ (56 mg/g) and Pb2+ (245 mg/g) after five adsorption–desorption cycles. Therefore, the as-prepared mesoporous aerogel has great potential in wastewater treatment.