Abstract:
Various types of dyes are widely used in textile industries. Extensive usage of these dyes leads to
water contamination. This contaminated water is hazardous for human beings and for other live
form as well. Therefore it is necessary to treat the polluted water. These dyes can be removed from
water using biodegradation method but this method is really not that efficient. Use of metallic
nanoparticles for degradation of dyes provides promising benefits to the environment. In this thesis
cellulose was modified to acid and amino functionalized derivatives and employed as supporting
material for the synthesis of copper nanoparticles. Copper ions from aqueous solution was
adsorbed on films of prepared derivatives and then treated with sodium borohydride solution in
order to synthesize zero valent copper nanoparticles. Immediate change in color depicts the
formation of nanoparticles which was also confirmed by XRD analysis. The prepared derivatives
of cellulose were characterized using FT-IR and CHNS analysis. UV-VIS spectroscopy was
performed for the degradation studies of dyes. Results revealed that all the films showed
degradation only in the presence of ZVC nanoparticles. Oxidized cellulose and MCC-Hyd and
MCC-DEM showed excellent degradation efficiencies i.e. more than 85% in all cases. Reason
behind is functionalization provides more adsorption sites for metals ions ultimately leads to
formation of larger amount of nanoparticles. While for pure cellulose degradation efficiency was
low because of less adsorption of copper ions from aqueous solution.
