Improved removal of malachite green from aqueous solution using chemically modified cellulose by anhydride

Cellulose modified with maleic (M) and phthalic (P) anhydride, to be named CMA and CPA, were tested as feasible adsorbents for the removal of malachite green from aqueous solution. At the same time, the uptake ability of natural cellulose was also studied for comparison. The structure of material was characterized by FT-IR and XRD. The effects of solution pH, initial dye concentration, contact time and temperature were investigated in detail by batch adsorption experiments. The kinetic and isotherm studies suggested that the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity on CMA and CPA were 370 mg g−1 and 111 mg g−1, respectively. Furthermore, the thermodynamics studies indicated the spontaneous nature of adsorption of malachite green on adsorbents. All the studied results showed that the modified cellulose could be used as effective adsorption material for the removal of malachite green from aqueous solutions.