Abstract
Fabricating dye adsorbents with efficient adsorption properties is of great significance in the treatment of printing and dyeing wastewater. Herein, composite materials of polydopamine decorated cellulose fibrous nonwovens (PDA@CF NWs) were fabricated by constructing a PDA functional layer on the surface of cellulose fibers via in situ polymerization. In addition, a three-dimensional adsorbent of 3D PDA@CF NWs with good hydrophilicity, structural stability, and compression resistance could be obtained using a facilely laminating and traditional loop bonding reinforcing technique. Attributed to the efficient and uniform loading of an active PDA functional layer, the resulting PDA@CF NWs exhibited a relatively large adsorption capacity of around 91 mg g(-1) towards the template dye of methylene blue within a fast equilibrium time of 2 h, which was superior to most of the fibrous adsorbents. In addition, the treatment column of 3D PDA@CF NWs exhibited a breakthrough capacity of 40.9 mg g(-1), reaching nearly 50% of the static saturated dye-binding capacity. More importantly, the 3D PDA@CF NWs column could effectively and continuously separate the mixture of different dyes under gravity, highlighting an excellent practical performance. Thus, the PDA@CF NWs are expected to provide a promising candidate for environment-friendly, large-scale and efficient treatment of industrial printing and dyeing wastewater.