Fe3O4@date seeds powder: a sustainable nanocomposite material for wastewater treatment

Abstract

This study reports synthesis and utilization of Fe3O4@date seeds powder to remove methylene blue from water. The adsorbent has been produced by a simple co-precipitation method, in which Fe3O4 nanoparticles are grown on date seeds powder. Different chemical functional groups were found on surface of the prepared bio-adsorbent. The size of the grown Fe3O4 nanoparticles was observed to be around 5 nm and confirmed their magnetic character via VSM measurement. Several non-linear adsorption isotherm models such as Langmuir, Freundlich, and Redlich-Peterson were obtained for methylene blue dye adsorption, and it was observed that the Freundlich isotherm is the best fitted model. The monolayer adsorption capacity calculated from Langmuir isotherm was 76.652 mg g−1 at 27 °C. The kinetic models (pseudo first order and pseudo second order) were also studied for methylene blue adsorption and the pseudo second order is the best fitted model in the present investigation. The methylene blue adsorption isotherm and kinetic study suggested that the current adsorption process was carried out by electrostatic interactions between the functional groups on the surface of the Fe3O4@date seeds powder and the dye, and the rate determining step was intraparticle diffusion. This entire study has been systematically explained through comparative study of literature. This study proves that the developed adsorbent is bio-degradable, inexpensive, and efficient for dye removal, which recommends increasing the production of natural bio-adsorbents in the future for water purification.

Keywords

• Magnetic nanoparticles
• Date seeds powder
• Water treatment
• Adsorption
• Methylene blue