Facile synthesis of triazole and carboxyl-functionalized cellulose-based adsorbent via click chemistry strategy for efficient Gd(III) removal

Gd(III) containing wastewater has toxic effects on both public health and aquatic life. However, few literature is available using wastes biomass containing cellulose with enough high adsorption capacity to remove Gd(III). Herein, we described a facile synthesis of triazole and carboxyl- functionalized magnetic cellulose-based material from ramie stalk (TCM-RS) through click chemistry strategy for the first time. The synthesized sample (TCM-RS) was used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal of Gd(III) from aqueous solution. The obtained materials were well characterized. Batch adsorption experiments showed that the combination of bifunctional chelating ligand, sufficient specific surface area, and magnetic response endowed the adsorbent with excellent adsorption selectivity, high adsorption capacity and easy separation of adsorbent from solutions, respectively. The maximum Gd(III) uptake of TCM-RS (62.8 mg/g) was reached within 40 min. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics revealed that the Langmuir model and the pseudo-second-order kinetics model could well describe the adsorption process of Gd(III) onto TCM-RS. Moreover, the sorbent can be regenerated and reused for five cycles without significant loss in adsorption capacity. Our study not only provides new insights into the fabrication of TCM-RS through click chemistry strategy, but also reveal that TCM-RS has great potential application for the removal of Gd(III) from wastewater.