Removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solutions using waste textiles/poly(acrylic acid) composite synthesized by radical polymerization technique.

Waste textiles (WTs) are the inevitable outcome of human activity and should be separated and recycled in view of sustainable development. In this work, WT was modified through grafting with acrylic acid (AA) via radical polymerization process using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator and microwave and/or UV irradiation as energy supply. The acrylic acid-grafted waste textiles (WT-g-AA) thus obtained was then used as an adsorbent to remove Pb(II) from Pb(II)-containing wastewater. The effects of pH, initial concentrations of Pb(II) and adsorbent dose were investigated, and around 95% Pb(II) can be removed from the aqueous solution containing 10mg/L at pH6.0-8.0. The experimental adsorption isotherm data was fitted to the Langmuir model with maximum adsorption capacity of 35.7mg Pb/g WT-g-AA. The Pb-absorbed WT-g-AA was stripped using dilute nitric acid solution and the adsorption capacity of Pb-free material decreased from 95.4% (cycle 1) to 91.1% (cycle 3). It was considered that the WT-g-AA adsorption for Pb(II) may be realized through the ion-exchange mechanism between COOH and Pb(II). The promising results manifested that WT-g-AA powder was an efficient, eco-friendly and reusable adsorbent for the removal of Pb(II) from wastewater.