Pilot-scale preparation of cellulose/carboxymethylcellulose composite fiber for methylene blue adsorption

Facing increasing water contamination, it is significant to explore new type of adsorbents with low cost, high efficiency and recyclability. Here, a novel cellulose/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) composite fiber was prepared via a fast cellulose dissolution method at low temperature and further wet spinning on pilot scale used for dye adsorption. The process shows high spinning speed (40 m min −1 ) and production capacity (2 kg per day) of dry fibers. The obtained fibers were uniform and the addition of CMC provided abundant carboxy groups to render the fibers high adsorption capacity to MB at 235.3 mg g −1 . The fibers also demonstrated good reusability, which the adsorption capacity remained up to 90% after 10 successive cycles. The adsorption kinetic and isotherms study suggested that the methylene blue adsorption on the fibers were controlled by chemisorption process through electrostatic interaction. In addition, the fibers showed excellent mechanical properties with tensile strength was 1.68 cN/dtex at dry state and 0.78 cN/dtex at wet state, which was benefited to its application. This research has provided new thinking for the design of cellulose composite fiber for dye adsorption, and promoted the application development of cellulose fiber in wastewater treatment.