Synthesis of a bioadsorbent from jute cellulose, and application for aqueous Cd (II) removal

•J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) bioadsorbent was synthesized by hydrolyzing the grafting co-polymer of jute cellulose.•Jute cellulose was pretreated by continues screw-extrusion steam resonance to further bioadsorbent synthesis.•This bioadsorbent is eco-friendly and its preparation method is simple and cost-effective.•J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) bioadsorbent has high adsorption capacity for Cd(II). A low-cost, high-adsorption-capacity, eco-friendly bioadsorbent for removing Cd2+ from aqueous solution is reported. J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was prepared by hydrolysis of the grafted copolymer, which was synthesized by free radical polymerization of acrylamide (AM) with jute fibers (JSE) pretreated by continuous screw-extrusion steam explosion. Fourier transform infrared and solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, confirmed that amino and carboxylate groups were introduced into J-g-P(AM-co-AANa). X-ray diffraction showed that the crystallinity of J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was significantly lower than that of JSE. The surface morphology of bioadsorbent was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The adsorption capacity of Cd2+ on J-g-P(AM-co-AANa) was evaluated for different solution pH values, contact times, and initial Cd2+ concentrations. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and the rate controlling step was chemisorption. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted by the Freundlich model, and the adsorption process was multilayer adsorption. The maximum adsorption capacity was 344.8 mg/g, which indicated that the bioadsorbent was effective for removing Cd2+ from aqueous solution.