Green Synthesis of CuO Nanoparticles Decorated into CA/PES Polymer As an Effective Dye Adsorbent

In this paper, environment friendly adsorbent material was successfully synthesized by plant ( Euphorbia Hirta ) mediated green synthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs), which was further incorporated into mixed matrices of cellulose acetate (CA) and polyether sulfone (PES) using the phase inversion method, and the efficiency of adsorbent materials was compared with the efficiency of those with incorporated CuO NPs and without CuO NPs in CA/PES polymer membrane. XRD, FTIR, FESEM-EDX, BET, contact angle and adsorption studies have characterized the prepared membrane. The structure, resulting from the formation of hydrogen bonds between the components were suggested by the FTIR and XRD analysis. The resulting contact angle measurements explain the essence of the membrane’s hydrophilicity. According to the resulting adsorption studies there is no adsorption ability against MB for the membrane without CuO NPs, but the incorporation of CuO NPs to the polymer membrane resulted in superior performance (removal efficiency 99%) in the removal of MB dye from water under room temperature. The most effective pH, temperature and initial dye concentration in adsorption process were found to be pH 7, 273 K and 2.5 × 10 –5 M respectively. These results revealed that due to its adsorption properties prepared CA/PES@CuO membrane is a promising candidate for the dye removal application. Moreover, this work is expected to extend the scope of various applications of these systems.