Novel hydrophobic cotton fibers adsorbent for the removal of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution

Yanchen Wu; Houjuan Qi; Beizhan Li; Huang Zhanhua; Wei Li; Shouxin Liu

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.08.088

Novel hydrophobic cotton fibers adsorbent for the removal of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution

Carbohydr Polym. 2017 Jan 2:155:294-302. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.08.088. Epub 2016 Aug 29.

Authors

Yanchen Wu¹, Houjuan Qi¹, Beizhan Li¹, Huang Zhanhua², Wei Li¹, Shouxin Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
² Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China. Electronic address: huangzh1975@163.com.
³ Key Laboratory of Bio-based Material Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China. Electronic address: liushouxin@126.com.

PMID: 27702515
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.08.088

Abstract

In order to improve the superhydrophobic and oil-wet properties of raw cotton fibers come from Jiangsu province, China. A novel adsorbent, hydrophobic cotton fibers (HCF) with an excellent superhydrophobic and larger length was synthesized via modified sol-gel method and examined for the removal of nitrobenzene in aqueous solution. Results show that the treated raw cotton fibers exhibited outstanding non-wettability with the WCA of 152° and the larger length of 0.2-0.4cm, which offers an opportunity to separation in for the removal of nitrobenzene. It was found that adsorption isotherm and kinetics of nitrobenzene onto HCF were well described by the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order kinetic models, respectively. The thermodynamic data showed that the nitrobenzene adsorption onto HCF was a spontaneous, endothermic and physisorption reaction. The monolayer adsorption capacity of nitrobenzene was found to be 16.85mg/g at 30°C.

Keywords: Adsorption; Cotton fiber; Hydrophobic; Kinetics; Nitrobenzene removal.