| dc.description.abstract | Nanocellulose (NC) gains significant attention as a promising candidate in water
purification and environmental remediation studies due to its superior chemical
and physical properties. The present study explored the capacity of removing the
hypertoxic As3+ in wastewater, with the use of NC after functionalization, namely
sulfonation, phosphorylation, and xanthation. Cellulose was extracted through an
alkaline treatment followed by bleaching with NaOCl from Panicum maximum,
which is an invasive plant in Sri Lanka, selected as the cellulose source. Acid
hydrolysis on extracted cellulose with 50% sulfuric acid, 85% phosphoric acid, and
21.9 % hydrochloric acid results in sulfonated, phosphorylated, and nonfunctionalized
NC respectively. Xanthation on non-functionalized NC with NaOH and
CS2 results xanthated NC. Functionalized NC was separately fabricated on each filter
paper with 50 mg loading and allowed to filter the As3+containing water through it.
The As3+ concentrations in the medium were determined by the colour intensity of
formed I2 with the reduction of IO3-, which corresponds to the oxidation of As3+ into
As5+ in an acidic medium, with the aid of UV-Vis spectroscopy. Among the
functionalized NC, the sulfonated NC has shown the highest removal efficiencies in
200 ppm, 150 ppm, and 100 ppm As3+ concentrations with removal percentages of
46.8,38.4, and 50.1. Further advancement of this work can reach the development
of bio-degradable and affordable columns for As3+ removal. Dynamic Light
Scattering results of sulfonated, phosphorylated, and non-functionalized NC were
295.7 nm, 271.4 nm, and 320.9 nm respectively, indicating that the particle sizes
were in the nanoscale range. | en_US |
