Home / Archives / Vol. 1 No. 1 (2018): JPTAFM Volume 1 Issue 1 (2018) / Articles Silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles prepared by the one-step electrochemical method for dye removal

Abstract

In this paper, the synthesis of silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles using a one-step electrochemical method and their application for dye removal are presented. In this method, pure iron in a dilute aqueous sodium silicate solution that served as a silica precursor was electro-oxidized. The silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles produced by this method is nearly spherical with the size of approximately 10 nm and follows the spinel structure of Fe3O4. The silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles exhibit nearly superparamagnetic properties and excellent performance to remove methylene blue from wastewater. The adsorption capacity of the nanoparticles was approximately 24.2 mg methylene blue/g adsorbent, which was much higher than that of pure magnetite nanoparticles (1.1 mg methylene blue/g adsorbent). Also, the percentage removal was higher than 90% with the initial concentration of methylene blue up to 40 mg/L. It can be regenerated and reused with an only slight reduction in percentage removal.