ORIGINAL RESEARCH Batch and column adsorption of cations, oxyanions and dyes on a magnetite modified cellulose-based membrane Jovana Perendija . Zlate S. Velic ˇkovic ´ . Ilija Cvijetic ´ . Jelena D. Rusmirovic ´ . Vukas ˇin Ugrinovic ´ . Aleksandar D. Marinkovic ´ . Antonije Onjia Received: 1 April 2020 / Accepted: 12 July 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract An optimized method is presented to make magnetite (MG) modified cellulose membrane (Cell- MG) from 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid dianhydride func- tionalized waste cell fibers; (Cell-NH 2 and Cell- DTPA), and amino-modified diatomite. Functional- ized Cell-NH 2 , Cell-DTPA fibers, and diatomite were structurally and morphologically characterized using FT-IR, Raman, and FE-SEM analysis. Amino and carboxyl group content was determined via standard volumetric methods. Response surface method was applied to rationalize the number of experiments related to Cell-MG synthesis and heavy metal ions column adsorption experiments. The effects of pH, contact time, temperature, and initial concentration of pollutants on adsorption and kinetics were studied in a batch, while initial concentration and flow rate were studied in a flow system. The calculated capacities of 88.2, 100.7, 95.8 and 78.2 mg g -1 for Ni 2? , Pb 2? , Cr(VI) and As(V) ions, respectively, were obtained from Langmuir model fitting. Intra-particle diffusion as a rate-limiting step was evaluated from pseudo- second-order and Weber–Morris model fitting. Ther- modynamic parameters indicated spontaneous and low endothermic processes. The results from reusabil- ity study, wastewater purification and fixed-bed column study proved the high applicability of Cell- MG. Additionally, high removal capacity of four dyes together with density functional theory and molecular interaction fields, help in the establishment of relation between the adsorption performances and contribution of non-specific and specific interactions at adsorbate/ adsorbent interface. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03352-x) con- tains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. J. Perendija University of Belgrade, Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Center of Ecology and Technoeconomics, Njegos ˇeva 12, 11001 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: j.nikolic.ihtm@tesla.rcub.bg.ac.rs Z. S. Velic ˇkovic ´ Military Academy, University of Defense, Generala Pavla Juris ˇic ´a S ˇ turma 33, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: zlatevel@yahoo.com I. Cvijetic ´ Faculty of Chemistry, Innovation Center, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 12, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: ilija@chem.bg.ac.rs J. D. Rusmirovic ´  V. Ugrinovic ´ Innovation Center, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Karnegijeva 4, 11120 Belgrade, Serbia e-mail: jrusmirovic@tmf.bg.ac.rs 123 Cellulose https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-020-03352-x