Cellulose polymers with β-amino ester pendant group: design, synthesis, molecular docking and application in adsorption of toxic metals from wastewater

BACKGROUND

Cellulose polymers with multidentate chelating functionalities that have high efficiency for toxic metal ions present in water were designed, synthesized, and analyzed. The synthesis was carried out by reacting microcrystalline cellulose extracted from the solid waste of the olive industry with tert-Butyl acetoacetate (Cell-AA), produced cellulose with β-ketoester functionality was then reacted with aniline and the amino acid glycine to produce Cell-β-AN and Cell-β-GL, respectively.

RESULTS

The adsorption efficiency of the three polymers toward Pb(II) and various toxic metal ions present in sewage was evaluated as a function of adsorbent dose, time, temperature, pH value, and initial ion concentration to determine optimum adsorption conditions. The three polymers showed excellent efficiency toward about 20 metal ions present in a sewage sample collected from the sewer. The adsorption process follows the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model with a second-order of adsorption rate, the calculated qe values (2.675, 15.252, 20.856 mg/g) were close to the experimental qe values (2.133, 13.91, 18.786 mg/g) for the three polymers Cell-AA, Cell-β-AG and Cell-β-AN, respectively. Molecular Dynamic (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were performed on the three polymers complexed with Pb(II).

CONCLUSION

The waste material of the olive industry was used as a precursor for making the target cellulose polymers with β-Amino Ester Pendant Group. The polymer was characterized by SEM, proton NMR, TGA, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The efficacy of adsorption was quantitative for metal ions present in a real sample of wastewater and the efficiency didn't drop even after 7 cycles of use. The results indicate the existence of strong complexation. The thermodynamic study results showed a spontaneous bonding between of Pb(II) and the polymers pendant groups expressed by the negative value of the Gibbs free energy.

Cellulose-Based Hectocycle Nanopolymers: Synthesis, Molecular Docking and Adsorption of Difenoconazole from Aqueous Medium

The goal of this work was to develop polymer-based heterocycle for water purification from toxic pesticides such as difenoconazole. The polymer chosen for this purpose was cellulose nanocrystalline (CNC); two cellulose based heterocycles were prepared by crosslinking with 2,6-pyridine dicarbonyl dichloride (Cell-X), and derivatizing with 2-furan carbonyl chloride (Cell-D). The synthesized cellulose-based heterocycles were characterized by SEM, proton NMR, TGA and FT-IR spectroscopy. To optimize adsorption conditions, the effect of various variable such as time, adsorbent dose, pH, temperature, and difenoconazole initial concentration were evaluated. Results showed that, the maximum difenoconazole removal percentage was about 94.7%, and 96.6% for Cell-X and Cell-D, respectively. Kinetic and thermodynamic studies on the adsorption process showed that the adsorption of difenoconazole by the two polymers is a pseudo-second order and follows the Langmuir isotherm model. The obtained values of ∆G ° and ∆H suggest that the adsorption process is spontaneous at room temperature. The results showed that Cell-X could be a promising adsorbent on a commercial scale for difenoconazole. The several adsorption sites present in Cell-X in addition to the semi crown ether structure explains the high efficiency it has for difenoconazole, and could be used for other toxic pesticides. Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation were performed on a model of Cell-X and difenoconazole, and the results showed strong interaction.