Surface ion-imprinted amino-functionalized cellulosic cotton fibers for selective extraction of Cu(II) ions

Surface ion-imprinted amino-functionalized cellulosic fibers (Cu-ABZ) were manufactured for efficient selective adsorption of Cu2+ ions. The chemical modification steps had been characterized utilizing elemental analysis; Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) along with wide angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy. Also, the morphological structure of the ion-imprinted and the non-imprinted (NI-ABZ) fibers were visualized and compared with that of the native cotton fibers using scanning electron microscope (SEM). In addition, the coordination mode by which the Cu2+ ions bonded to the active sites were examined by both FTIR and X-ray photo electron spectra (XPS). Both Cu-ABZ and NI-ABZ were implemented in batch experiments for optimizing the conditions by which the Cu2+ ions can be selectively removal from aqueous medium and pH 5 was the optimum for the metal ion extraction. Moreover, the kinetics and isotherm studies revealed that the adsorption data fitted with pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir models with estimated maximum adsorption capacity 93.6 mg/g. Also, the reusability studies indicated that the prepared ion-imprinted adsorbent maintains more than 95% of its original activity after fifth generation cycle.