Boosting xanthan gum biomass adsorbent for super strong removal performances to various pollutants and mechanism

A novel highly efficient xanthan gum biomass adsorbent XG/PEI/PEGDE (xanthan gum/polyethyleneimine/polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether), demonstrating its remarkable efficacy in eliminating twelve water contaminants including ten dyes, one herbicide and Cu(II) ion, was constructed through a simple one-pot approach under mild conditions. Systematic investigations revealed that the contaminants adsorptions by XG/PEI/PEGDE were apparently affected by adsorbent dosage, solution pH, temperature, contact time and initial concentration. The XG/PEI/PEGDE demonstrated its exceptional adsorption capacities ( q e 2,4-D  = 221 mg g −1 , q e CR = 3820 mg g −1 , q e AB  = 1984 mg g −1 at removal efficiencies of approximately 90%) and excellent reusability (minimal performance loss after six cycles), remarkably outperforming most reported xanthan gum adsorbents. Further, one thermodynamic, four isothermal and four kinetic models were utilized to explore the contaminants adsorption performances by XG/PEI/PEGDE. Meanwhile, how common ions Na + , K + , Cl − and HCO 3 − impacted the contaminants adsorptions were also assessed. The investigations from various characterization techniques demonstrated that the contaminants adsorptions by XG/PEI/PEGDE mainly depend on the hydrogen bond along with electrostatic interactions of XG/PEI/PEGDE with the contaminants. Remarkably advantageous over the existing XG-based adsorption materials in view of adsorption performance, easy fabrication and a broad range of applicability, this study provides a new insight into designing highly efficient biomass-based adsorption materials.