Cellulose paper grafted with polyamines as powerful adsorbent for heavy metals

The preparation of new adsorbents for heavy metals consisting of cellulose paper grafted with polyamine moieties is described. The tosylation of pristine cellulose paper allowed the subsequent displacement of the tosylated leaving groups with either ethylenediamine or spermine provided the corresponding cellulose-based polyaminated adsorbents Cell-Ed and Cell-Sperm, respectively. Optimizations related to the influence of experimental conditions (time and pH) on the adsorption processes associated to detailed studies devoted to the understanding of the mechanism of adsorption through kinetic experiments and isotherm modeling provided a rational understanding for the removal Cu(II) and Pb(II). Interestingly, Cell-Sperm also displayed outstanding adsorption properties for other metal cations such as Cd(II), Zn(II) and Fe(II).