Preparation of Fe3O4/vine shoots derived activated carbon nanocomposite for improved removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Abstract In this study, Fe3O4/activated carbon nanocomposite was successfully synthesized for removal of Chromium from aqueous solutions. The Fe3O4 nanoparticles were decorated on vine shoots-derived activated carbon using co-precipitation method. The atomic absorption spectrometer was used to evaluate the removal of Chromium ions by the prepared adsorbent. The effect of various parameters such as adsorbent dose, pH, contact time, reusability, electric field, and initial Chromium concentration were examined to find the optimum conditions. According to the results, the synthesized nanocomposite showed a high ability to remove Chromium at an optimized pH of 3. At optimum conditions, a high removal efficiency of 90% and an excellent adsorption capacity of 305.30 mg/g was obtained. In addition, adsorption isotherms and adsorption kinetics were studied in this research. The results showed that the data are well fitted with the Freundlich isotherm and the adsorption process is spontaneous and follows the pseudo-second-order model.