Superparamagnetic nanosorbent for water purification: Assessment of the adsorptive removal of lead and methyl orange from aqueous solutions

[EN] The present study describes the preparation of 50.3 nm superparamagnetic nanosorbents with high surface area for the adsorptive removal of lead and methyl orange from water. This material is based on the surface modification of iron oxide superparamagnetic nanoparticles with a double-shell coat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gallo-Cordova, Álvaro, Lemus, J., Palomares, F. Javier, Morales, María Del Puerto, Mazarío, Eva
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/226580
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/226580
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Water treatment
Iron oxide nanoparticles
Magnetic nanoparticles
Pollutant
Magnetic harvesting
Adsorption
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] The present study describes the preparation of 50.3 nm superparamagnetic nanosorbents with high surface area for the adsorptive removal of lead and methyl orange from water. This material is based on the surface modification of iron oxide superparamagnetic nanoparticles with a double-shell coating of mesoporous silica whose porosity was increased up to 570 m/g by the addition of a porogenic material and its calcination. The adsorptive performance of the nanosorbent was evaluated as a function of several parameters (e.g. solution pH, pollutant initial concentration, and contact time), concluding that pHs around 5 are needed to avoid precipitation of Pb as Pb(OH) and the equilibrium adsorption capacity is reached after 2 h in all cases. The experimental data on the adsorption capacity of lead and methyl orange onto the nanosorbent were fit to a pseudo-second order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity value increases from 35 up to 50 mg/g for lead removal with increasing nanosorbent surface area. Contrary, for methyl orange the maximum adsorption goes up to 240 mg/g, indicating a larger nanosorbent surface affinity for the organic matter that is able to diffuse through the silica pores as probed by the intraparticle diffusion model. In addition, we found an good reusability (100% recovering after 4 sorption/desorption cycles for methyl orange removal), which makes of this magnetic nanosorbent suitable for remediation technologies.