Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-coated magnetite nanoparticles as highly efficient adsorbent for rapid removal of reactive dyes from the textile companies’ wastewaters

Abstract

The utilization of modified magnetite nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) with a cationic surfactant (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)) as an efficient adsorbent was successfully carried out to remove reactive black 5 (RBBA), reactive red 198 (RRR) and reactive blue 21 (RTB) dyes from aqueous solutions. First, a reactor was designed to be simple, repeatable and efficient in its synthesis of Fe3O4 NPs via co-precipitation method. Then, an orthogonal array design (OAD), four factor-four level (44) matrix was applied to assign affecting factors on removing of the dyes from aqueous solutions. The obtained results from ANOVA showed that the amount of CTAB and NaCl% significantly affect the adsorption of RBBA, RRR and RTB dyes. The sorption kinetics of the dyes were best described by a second-order kinetic model, suggesting chemisorptions mechanism. Also, dye adsorption equilibrium state data were fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm rather than Freundlich isotherm. Also, the maximum monolayer capacity, qmax, obtained from the Langmuir was 312.5, 163.9 and 556.2 mg g-1 for RBBA, RRR and RTB, respectively. The obtained results in the present study indicated that the CTAB-coated Fe3O4 NPs can be an efficient adsorbent material for removal of reactive dyes form aqueous solutions.