The work shown in this article demonstrate a novel example of converting olive industry solid waste (OISW) into a magnetic cellulose nanocrystalline (MNCs) to serve as selective magnetic sorbents for methylene blue. Olive industry solid waste contains about 40% cellulose. The cellulose was extracted in a powder form from olive industry solid waste by subjecting it to a multistep pulping and bleaching process. The extracted powder cellulose was then converted to nanocrystalline cellulose (NCs) by acid hydrolysis. The NCs were then treated with a solution of FeCl3.6H2O, FeSO4, and H2O by a colloidal suspension method which produced free-flowing porous MNCs. The produced MNCs are characterized by several spectroscopic and analytical techniques such as SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR VSM, and TGA. The efficiency of the three polymers cellulose powder, NCs, and MNCs toward extracting methylene blue (MB) from water was evaluated. Cellulose powder and NCs showed acceptable tendency for methylene blue. However, MNCs showed excellent extraction efficiency toward MB. The thermodynamic studies revealed a spontaneous adsorption of MB by MNCs at various temperatures. The spontaneous adsorption could be attributed to the electrostatic interaction and H-bonding between MNCs and MB. However, the interaction between cellulose, NCs, and MB is limited to the H-bonding.
Keywords: Adsorption; Cellulose; Magnetic nanocellulose; Methylene blue; Olive solid waste.