Synthesis, Characterization, and Adsorptive Properties of Fe3O4GO Nanocomposites for Antimony Removal

Abstract EN

A magnetic Fe3O4/GO composite with potential for rapid solid-liquid separation through a magnetic field was synthesized using GO (graphene oxide) and Fe3O4 (ferriferous oxide).

Characterization of Fe3O4/GO used scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM).

A number of factors such as pH and coexisting ions on adsorbent dose were tested in a series of batch experiments.

The results showed that GO and Fe3O4 are strongly integrated.

For pH values in the range of 3.0~9.0, the removal efficiency of Sb(III) using the synthesized Fe3O4/GO remained high (95%).

The adsorption showed good fit to a pseudo-second-order and Langmiur model, with the maximum adsorption capacity of 9.59 mg/g maintained across pH 3.0–9.0.

Thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic.

Analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) showed that the adsorption process is accompanied by a redox reaction.