Amine Modified Magnetic Diatomite Particles as an Effcicent Adsorbent for Pecticide Removal

Pesticides are one of the most critical emerging contaminants which are highly toxic for the environment and have potential risk to human health. In this study, surface-modified magnetic diatomite particles (m-DE-APTES) have been suc-cessfully synthesized and used as a sorbent for the removal of endosulfan from an aqueous solution. Magnetic diatomite particles with surface modification were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scan-ning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), electron spin resonance (ESR), and surface area measurements. Characterization results sug-gest that magnetic diatomite has a high surface area and porous structure. In addition, m-DE-APTES has higher adsorption capacity (97.2 mg/g) for en-dosulfan pesticide than unmodified diatomite particles (DE) (16.6 mg/g). The adsorption data fit the Langmuir model (R2=0.9905), and the adsorption process took place spontaneously with the values of ΔGo as -2.576. In conclusion, the surface-modified diatomite particles are promising alternative adsorbents for pesticide removal from aqueous solutions.