An inexpensive, environmental-friendly magnetic adsorbent consisting of modified cellulose and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) was synthesized and used for removing copper cations from an aqueous solution. The Central Composite Design was used for planning the adsorption experiments. The maximum removal was equal to 92.29% for an initial copper concentration of 40.0 mg·L-1. The initial pH and temperature were fixed at 6.5 and 25.0 °C and the adsorbent dosage was 1.97 g·L-1 in the kinetics study. The adsorption process was almost completed within 10 min. The pseudo-n-order (PnO) model was the best model to fit the experimental data. Ions of Cu(II) formed a complex with EDTA. Also, electrostatic interactions between carboxyl groups of modified cellulose/EDTA and Cu(II) were the key factors for adsorption.
