Synthesis and application of carboxymethyl cellulose-graphene oxide composite for the mitigation of Pb2+ and Cd2+ from aqueous solution

In this work, carboxymethyl cellulose-graphene oxide (CMC-GO) nanocomposite was prepared and used as a lowcost adsorbent to remove Pb2+ and Cd2+ from aqueous solution. CMC-GO was characterized using various techniques such as FTIR, XRD, TGA, zeta potential and SEM with EDX. The optimum pH, adsorbent dose, time, and percentage of removal were found 5.0, 1.0 g/L, 60 min, and 96.3% for Pb2+ and 5.5, 1.5 g/L, 60 min, and 82.5% for Cd2+, respectively at an initial concentration of 200 ppm. The Freundlich isotherm model and pseudosecond order kinetics were configured properly with experimental data and maximum capacity was found 213.21 mg/g and 134.04 mg/g for Pb2+ and Cd2+ ions respectively. The positive value of enthalpy (Delta H) and negative values of Gibbs free energy (Delta G) for the Cd2+ and Pb2+ sorption process indicate endothermic nature of sorption and spontaneous at room temperature. This study revealed that the prepared composite could be costeffective, efficient and viable adsorbent for the remediation of toxic Pb2+ and Cd2+ pollution from water bodies as well as wastewater treatment.