Modification of Cellulose for Metal Ions Adsorption and Degradation of Organic Pollutants.

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.