Synthesis of Cellulose/Nano-hydroxyapatite Composite Hydrogel Absorbent for Removal of Heavy Metal Ions from Palm Oil Mill Effluents

• Published in: Journal of polymers and the environment Vol. 29; no. 12; pp. 4106 - 4119
• Main Authors: Wong, Siew Ming, Zulkifli, Muhammad Zikri Aiman, Nordin, Darman, Teow, Yeit Haan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-12-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adsorption; Cadmium; Cellulose; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composite materials; Copper; Effluents; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Ferrous ions; Heavy metals; Hydrogels; Hydroxyapatite; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Industrial wastes; Industrial wastewater; Industrial wastewater treatment; Iron; Lead; Materials Science; Metal ions; Original Paper; Palm oil; Polymer Sciences; Raw materials; Synthesis; Vegetable oils; Wastewater treatment; Zinc; Multiple metal ion adsorption system; Cellulose/nano-hydroxyapatite composite hydrogel; Adsorption; Nano-hydroxyapatite; Heavy metal
• ISSN: 1566-2543; 1572-8919
• DOI: 10.1007/s10924-021-02183-6

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been identified to have an outstanding ability to remove heavy metal ions. Hence, nano-hydroxyapatite-cellulose hydrogel composites were developed to investigate the effects of the HA produced from
Marcia marmorata
clam shell biomass in the composites on increasing the adsorption capacity of a hydrogel to remove heavy metals from industrial wastewater. The hydrogel performance in the removal of heavy metal ions was investigated using a palm oil mill effluent (POME), which is the industrial wastewater from a palm oil mill. The addition of nano-hydroxyapatite in the cellulose hydrogel matrix succeeded in increasing the hydrogel adsorption capacity in the extraction of heavy metal ions, such as Cu
2+
, Pb
2+
, Fe
2+
, Cd
2+
, and Zn
2+
. The resulting composite hydrogel with 1.5% of wt/v% of nano-hydroxyapatite managed to get rid of 70.24%, 57.74%, 48.56%, 27.33%, and 25.98% of Cu
2+
, Pb
2+
, Fe
2+
, Cd
2+
, and Zn
2+
ions from POME, respectively. The success of this composite hydrogel in removing heavy metals is an important achievement in the field of industrial wastewater treatment, as it uses the nano-hydroxyapatite produced from the clam shell residual and cellulose powder as the raw materials for the synthesis of the composite instead of using chemicals that are harmful to the environment.