Aminated cotton fibers loaded with copper(II) ions for enhanced pesticide removal performance from water in a laboratory scale batch

Diethylenetriamine cotton fibers (DET-cotton) were prepared by amination with diethylenetriamine (DET) on chlorodeoxycellulose (CDC-cotton). The evidence of grafting was confirmed by elemental and AFM analysis. Then, the modified fibers were loaded with copper (II) ions and, the abilities of both DET-cotton and [Cu(II)/DET-cotton] for binding an herbicide, i.e. Linuron (LNR) were investigated. To examine the underlying mechanism of the adsorption process, pseudo-first, pseudo-second-order, elovich and intraparticle diffusion models were fitted to experimental kinetic data. Results showed that the pseudo-second-order equation was appropriate to describe the pesticide adsorption by [Cu(II)/DET-cotton]. However, the adsorption behavior by DET-cotton followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Adsorption data were further analyzed by the Langmuir. Freundlich and Jossens adsorption approaches. Attempts have also been made to recover the pesticide from exhausted adsorbent. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.