Synthesis and application of polymer-grafted nanocellulose/graphene oxide nano composite for the selective recovery of radionuclides from aqueous media

ABSTRACT

A series of batch adsorption experiments under optimized conditions were performed and also to evaluate the reliability and feasibility of prepared adsorbent, carboxylate functionalized ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) crosslinked nanocellulose/graphene oxide polymer composite (EGDMA-g-nCell/GO) for Th(IV) recovery from aqueous media. The material was well characterized by using FTIR, XRD, XPS, SEM-EDS, TG-DTA and zeta potential analysis. The equilibrium adsorption capacity (Q₀) among the various models was 141.21 mg/g at 30 °C and was well correlated with Langmuir isotherm model with reduced χ² and R² values. The spent adsorbent was undergone four cycles of regeneration process without any significant loss in adsorption capacity using 0.1 M HNO₃ as desorbing agent, with up to 98.0 % recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Thorium removal
• Adsorption
• Desorption study
• Graphene
• Isotherm

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Principal, Sree Narayana College, Kollam, Kerala, India and Professor and Head, Department of Chemistry, Sree Narayana College, Kollam, Kerala, India for providing the laboratory facilities. One of the authors, Suma Mahesh, is grateful to University of Kerala, Trivandrum, Kerala, India, for providing assistance in the form of research fellowship for this work.