The Use of Novel Ionic Liquid and Cellulose Nanocrystals Modified Date Pits as Adsorbents for Groundwater Treatment

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the remediation of Li1+, Mo6+, and B3+ from groundwater using an innovative low-cost adsorbent. Agriculturally abundant date pits were modified to be successfully used as an adsorbent. Chemical modifications were performed to functionalize raw date pits (RDP) by using cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and ionic liquid (IL), and the modified adsorbent are named IL-CNC@DP. Results demonstrated that the maximum adsorption capacity of all metals was at pH 6 and the highest uptake capacity order was Li1+ > B3+ > Mo6+. Moreover, thermodynamics constants for all metals of the adsorption process showed that the modified adsorbent (IL-CNC@DP) was exothermic, does not favor a high level of disorder, and is spontaneous in nature. Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin Radushkevich, and Temkin isotherm models were used to find the best-fit model for each metal. Lastly, the characterizations of the novel adsorbents were performed by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis. In this current study, the modified adsorbent (IL-CNC@DP) in comparison to the unmodified adsorbent (RDP) confirmed exceptional results proving that the modification enhanced the remediation of the Li1+, Mo6+, and B3+ from water