Immobilization of Magnetic Nanoparticles onto Amine-Modified Nano-Silica Gel for Copper Ions Remediation.

Marwa Elkady,Aly Hashim,Hassan Shokry Hassan

doi:10.3390/ma9060460

Abstract

A novel nano-hybrid was synthesized through immobilization of amine-functionalized silica gel nanoparticles with nanomagnetite via a co-precipitation technique. The parameters, such as reagent concentrations, reaction temperature and time, were optimized to accomplish the nano-silica gel chelating matrix. The most proper amine-modified silica gel nanoparticles were immobilized with magnetic nanoparticles. The synthesized magnetic amine nano-silica gel (MANSG) was established and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). The feasibility of MANSG for copper ions’ remediation from wastewater was examined. MANSG achieves a 98% copper decontamination from polluted water within 90 min. Equilibrium sorption of copper ions onto MANSG nanoparticles obeyed the Langmuir equation compared to the Freundlich, Temkin, Elovich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) equilibrium isotherm models. The pseudo-second-order rate kinetics is appropriate to describe the copper sorption process onto the fabricated MANSG.

Highlights

Water pollution by trace heavy metals is well known as a serious environmental and public problem
The copper sorption rate is positively influenced by the improvement in reaction time, reaction temperature and the ratio of silica gel to the chemical reactant concentrations
The most proper amine-functionalized silica gel was immobilized with nano-magnetite using the co-precipitation technique to attain magnetic amine-functionalized nano-silica gel (MANSG)

Summary

Introduction

Water pollution by trace heavy metals is well known as a serious environmental and public problem. Where the increasing in industrial activities has caused many water bodies to receive loads of heavy metals that exceed the maximum permissible limit for wastewater, discharge is designed to protect the environment, humans and animals. These metals, in addition to their high toxicity, do not have any tendency to be degraded or destroyed. In order to provide long-term high quality water or to enable water recycling, there has been research into alternative remediation processes involving filtration, chemical precipitation, solvent extraction, electrolysis, ion exchange, electrochemical deposition and membrane process These methods are either inefficient or expensive, especially when the concentration of the heavy metal ion is low [1].

Methods

Results

Conclusion