Dye removal from water by zinc ferrite-graphene oxide nanocomposite

Authors

1 Cancer Gene Therapy Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box: 45139-56184, Zanjan, Iran

2 Zanjan Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, P. O. Box: 45139-56184, Zanjan, Iran

3 Department of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials, School of Pharmacy, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, P. O. Box: 45139-56184, Zanjan, Iran.

4 Department of Chemistry, Payame Noor University, P.O. Box: 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran.

5 Engineering Department, University of Zanjan, P. O. Box: 45371-38791, Zanjan, Iran

Abstract

In this work, zinc ferrite magnetic and zinc ferrite-graphene oxide nanocomposite were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method and dye removal capability as an adsorbent were studied. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FT-IR, X-ray diffraction XRD and scanning electron microscopy SEM were used to characterize the synthesized nanocomposite. The UV-Vis results showed that the addition of as-prepared magnetic nanoparticles on the graphene oxide sheets significantly improved the adsorption of organic dye pollutants from aqueous solution. Magnetic hysteresis measurements were done on a vibrant sample magnetometer VSM viewing the soft paramagnetic property of the resulting products at room temperature. The structural and morphological analyses were also studied in detail. The adsorption kinetics was described by pseudo-second-order model. Because zinc ferrite-graphene oxide nanocomposite could be recycled suitably and possessed of adsorptive property, it can be developed as an inexpensive and alternative adsorbent to treat dye wastewater.

Keywords