A MAGNETIC HUMUS CORE-SHELL COMPOSITE SYNTHESIZED BY ABIOTIC HUMIFICATION METHOD FOR CR(VI) REMOVAL

Abstract

Synthesized humus displays a high adsorption capacity for heavy metals in water due to an abundance of active functional groups and to a flexibility of modification resulting from the readily controllable synthesis process. Herein, a new method is proposed to prepare magnetic humus with high performance in the removal of Cr(VI) in water. The synthesized humus is produced through the abiotic humification technology with small molecular precursors including phenols, amino acids, and glucose. Nanoferroferric oxide (Fe3O4) plays an important role in the enhancement of the humus synthesis process. The high affinity of humus towards Fe3O4 anoparticles, enables growing of humus on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The surface morphology of the manufactured magnetic humus suggests that this material has a core-shell structure. The magnetite nanoparticles in magnetic humus show the largest amount of humus (~33.37 w/w%) at pH 8. The high loading ability of humus results in a high removal efficiency of 99.95% in a 7.30 mg/L Cr(VI) solution involving 4 mg/mL magnetic humus. Therefore, the present method is feasible to construct a core-shell magnetic humus composite to achieve high removal of Cr(VI) in water.