Abstract

Environmentally friendly polymers such as cellulose acetate (CA) and chitosan (CS) were used to obtain electrospun fibers for Cu 2+ , Pb 2+ , and Mo 6+ capture. The solvents dichloromethane (DCM) and dimethylformamide (DMF) allowed the development of a surface area of 148 m 2 g -1 for CA fibers and 113 m 2 g -1 for cellulose acetate/chitosan (CA/CS) fibers. The fibers were characterized by IR-DRIFT, SEM, TEM, CO 2 sorption isotherms at 273 K, Hg porosimetry, TGA, stress -strain tests, and XPS. The CA/CS fibers had a higher adsorption capacity than CA fibers without affecting their physicochemical properties. The capture capacity reached 102 mg g -1 for Cu 2+ , 49.3 mg g -1 for Pb 2+ , and 13.1 mg g -1 for Mo 6+ . Furthermore, optimal pH, adsorption times q t , and C 0 were studied for the evaluation of kinetic models and adsorption isotherms. Finally, a proposal for adsorbateadsorbent interactions is presented as a possible capture mechanism where, in the case of Mo 6+ , a computational study is presented. The results demonstrate the potential to evaluate the fibers in tailings wastewater from copper mining.