One-Step Growth of Porous Cellulose Beads Directly on Bamboo Fibers via Oxidation-Derived Method in Aqueous Phase and Their Potential for Heavy Metal Ions Adsorption

Abstract

Cellulose beads consist of natural polysaccharide fibers and are widely used in various industrial materials and applications. Nevertheless, the key challenge is how to effectively avoid the tedious preparation process and environmentally harmful chemicals that exist in traditional fabrication routes. This study proposes a green and facile route to fabricate porous cellulose beads by selecting bamboo fibers as raw material. Without a tedious multistep process (dissolution, emulsification, and regeneration) and environmentally harmful solvents, porous cellulose beads were formed directly on bamboo fibers under aqueous phase with sodium periodate. Varied methods of SEM, XRD were applied to characterize porous cellulose beads at different fabrication stages. By this investigation, the feasible mechanism toward spherical cellulose formation was raised. After being modified with glycine, the cellulose beads were evaluated by means of adsorption isotherm and kinetics for investigating their adsorption potential by using Co2+ and Cu2+ as probes. All of the results illustrated that the porous cellulose beads by this strategy showed excellent adsorption efficiency for the removal of metal ions from wastewater.