Contamination in water is due to various environmental pollutants from natural and anthropogen activities. To
remove toxic metals from contaminated water, we developed a novel adsorbent in foam form based on an olive
industry waste material. The foam synthesis involved oxidation of cellulose extracted from the waste to dialdehyde,
functionalization of the cellulose dialdehyde with an amino acid group, reacting the functionalized
cellulose with hexamethylene diisocyanate and p-phenylene diisocyanate to produce the target polyurethanes
Cell-F-HMDIC and Cell-F-PDIC, respectively. The optimum condition for lead(II) adsorption by Cell-F-HMDIC
and Cell-F-PDIC were determined. The foams show the ability to quantitatively remove most of metal ions
present in a real sample of sewage. The kinetic and thermodynamic studies confirmed a spontaneous metal ion
binding to the foams with a second pseudo-order adsorption rate. The adsorption study revealed it obeys the
Langmuir isotherm model. The experimental Qe values of both foams Cell-F-PDIC and Cell-F-HMDIC were
2.1929 and 2.0345 mg/g, respectively. Monte Carlo (MC) and Dynamic (MD) and simulations showed excellent
affinity of both foams for lead ions with high adsorption negative energy value indicating vigorous interactions of
Pb(II) with the adsorbent surface. The results indicate the usefulness of the developed foam in commercial
applications.
Environmental implication: Elimination of metal ions from contaminated environments is important for a number
of reasons. They are toxic to humans via interaction with biomolecules, resulting in disruption of the metabolism
and biological activities of many proteins. They are toxic to plants. Industrial effluents and/or wastewater discharged
from production processes, contain a considerable amount of metal ions.
In this work, the use of naturally produced materials, such as olive waste biomass, as adsorbents for environmental
remediation has received great attention. This biomass represents unused resources and presents serious
disposal problems. We demonstrated that such materials are capable of selectively adsorbing metal ions.

Title

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules

Publisher

Elsvier

Publisher Country

Netherlands

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

8.5

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

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Year

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Pages

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