Study of heavy metal ion absorbance by amidoxime group introduced to cellulose‐graft‐polyacrylonitrile

Amidoximated grafted cellulose was obtained by reacting hydroxylamine and cellulose‐graft‐polyacrylonitrile (C‐g‐PAN), prepared by KMnO 4 /citric acid redox system, and the resultant amidoximated grafted cellulose was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), solid‐state NMR, FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and elemental analysis. The highest value of amidoxime content in the grafted sample was 2.42 mmol/g. The adsorption efficiencies of amidoximated grafted cellulose have been evaluated with studying different adsorption conditions. Amidoximated sample with amidoxime content 2.42 mmol/g showed high ability to adsorb the metal ions from the aqueous solutions as high as 1.7 mmol/g, 1.6 mmol/g, and 0.84 mmol/g for Co 2+ , Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ ions, respectively, at the highest original metal ion concentration. These values are about three times larger than previous studies.