Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
1383435 | Carbohydrate Polymers | 2016 | 8 Pages |
•Porous hydrogels based on CMC have a cellular and tunable pore structure.•Porous hydrogels are used directly as adsorbents without any functionalization.•Porous adsorbents show fast adsorption rate and high adsorption capacity for La3+ and Ce3+.
A series of monolithic open-cellular hydrogel adsorbents based on carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) were prepared through high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) and used to enrich the rare-earth metals La3+ and Ce3+. The changes of pore structure, and the effects of pH, contact time, initial concentration on the adsorption performance were systematically studied. The results show that the as-prepared monolithic hydrogel adsorbents possess good open-cellular framework structure and have fast adsorption kinetics and high adsorption capacity for La3+ and Ce3+. The involved adsorption system can reach equilibrium within 30 min and the maximal adsorption capacity is determined to be 384.62 mg/g for La3+ and 333.33 mg/g for Ce3+. Moreover, these porous hydrogel adsorbents show an excellent adsorptive reusability for La3+ and Ce3+ through five adsorption–desorption cycles. Such a pore hierarchy structure makes this monolithic open-cellular hydrogel adsorbent be an effective adsorbent for effective enrichment of La3+ and Ce3+ from aqueous solution.