Accessing renewable magnetic cellulose nanofiber adsorbent to enhance separation efficiency for adsorption and recovery of Cd2+

To address the issue of toxic cadmium pollution and meet the need for rapid separation from water body, a magnetic bio-composite material, marked as CFeMg, was prepared via a facile method. It explicitly includes components of cellulose nanofiber (CNF), Fe 3 O 4 and Mg (OH) 2 . The microstructures and morphology were characterized and analyzed using XRD, FT-IR, SEM, and TEM. CNF was chemically coupled by Fe 3 O 4 , which together constructed the overall layered structure. Between layers were Mg(OH) 2 flakes attached. While dealing with Cd 2+ , q max of the best sample reached 361.5 mg g −1 with high adsorption efficiency. The roles of three components were explored and the adsorption mechanism was proposed. Assisted by magnetic CNF, it only took 3 min to efficiently and completely salvage the spent CFeMg sample from water after adsorption. Due to its high adsorption capacity and facile recovery performance, the prepared composite has promising application as water treatment.