Green-synthesis of superparamagnetic Fe3O4/alginate bio-nanocomposites for heavy metal contamination removal from industrial wastewater

Abstract In present study, an efficient superparamagnetic Fe3O4/alginate nanocomposite material (SPFe3O4/alg-NCM) was green-synthesized and used as nanosorbent to remove some heavy metals from industrial wastewater. Green-synthesized SPFe3O4/alg-NCM was characterized by using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) with attenuated total reflection (ATR) unit, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) techniques. For determination the experimental conditions to ensure maximum adsorption capacity and to find the effects of various variables including initial heavy metal concentration and flow rate on the adsorption efficiency in column system central compoiste design (CCD) was used. To predict of responses and ANOVA a regression model were derived from CCD. The adsorption efficiencies and capacities of SPFe3O4/alg-NCM were calculated as 31.93 mg g-1 for Cd2+ and 58.8 mg g-1 for Co2+. The obtained results have proven that nanosorbent can be used successfully and effectively to remove metals from industrial wastewaters. In addition, being reusable and inexpensive are other important advantages of nanosorbent.