Adsorption Mechanism of Reactive Red 2BF onto Magnetic Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 Nanoparticles

Abstract

Magnetic Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared by the nitrate-alcohol-solution combustion and calcination technique. The morphology and composition of Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles were characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the X-ray diffraction (XRD), the energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), the vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), the Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurement (BET). The concentration of the ferric nitrate and the calcination temperature were the two key factors to the property of Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles. To achieve greater adsorption capacity and durability of materials, magnetic Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles calcined at 400 °C with ferric nitrate concentration of 0.84 M were employed to remove reactive red 2BF (RR-2BF). The pseudo-second-order kinetic model could be applied to describe the adsorption process of RR-2BF onto Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles in the initial RR-2BF concentrations of 100–400 mg L−1, and the adsorption process could be fitted well by Langmuir model. The above adsorption experiments results suggested that the adsorption of RR-2BF onto Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles was the monolayer adsorption mechanism. The effect of the dye solution pH on the adsorption process had been explored. At the same time, the removal efficiency for RR-2BF onto Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles could maintain more than 72% after 10 cycles.