Adsorption of Cu(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II) from aqueous single metal solutions by guanyl-modified cellulose

A novel chemically guanyl-modified cellulose (Gu-MC) − material has been synthesized for the adsorption of Cu2+, Cd2+, Hg2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ metal ions from aqueous solution. Cellulose was pretreated with periodate prior to its condensation with aminoguanidine for the formation of cellulose aldehyde-guanyl Schiff's. The synthesized material was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), elemental analysis, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Moreover, the effect of contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage, interfering ions and initial concentration of metal ions on the adsorption capacity were investigated. At optimum conditions, the adsorption capacities of Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+, Pb2+ and Hg2+ were 83, 78, 68, 52, and 48 mg g−1, respectively. The kinetic of adsorption adopted to the second-order model and kinetic model showed that the chemical adsorption is the rate limiting step. The proposed material has been successfully applied for the adsorption of the target metal ions from different real samples with satisfactory results.