Influence of Magnetic Nanoparticles on Surface Changes in CoFe2O4/Nerium Oleander Leaf Waste Activated Carbon Nanocomposite for Water Treatment

Abstract

The paper reports on the successful use of the nano crystalline cobalt ferrite doped Nerium oleander leaf waste activated carbon (CoFe2O4/NOAC) synthesized by an urea assisted auto combustion technique to assess accurate kinetics and equilibrium parameters regarding the investigation of adsorption. The specific features of nano composite were investigated by various analytical techniques such as Scanning electron microscope with EDAX, powder X-ray diffraction study, BET surface area analysis, TG and DSC, Vibrating Sample Magnetometer. The BET analysis indicates that CoFe2O4 nano particles embedded in NOAC have increased the pore diameter for better adsorption. TG and DSC show the thermal stability of composite. The VSM study shows the Ferro magnetic behavior of nano composite which revealed that CoFe2O4/NOAC could be separated and retrieved easily by an external magnet after adsorption of AV49. The efficiency of adsorption of AV49 from aqueous solution was investigated through a series of batch experiments by using CoFe2O4/NOAC. The batch adsorption experiments showed the efficient removal on CoFe2O4/NOAC under optimum conditions such as pH 6.5, contact time-55 min and adsorbent dosage-50 mg. Adsorption kinetics—Pseudo first order and second order, Isotherms—Langmuir and Freundlich have been adapted to analyze the adsorption capacity. The results showed that the adsorption followed the pseudo second order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm equation is the best to describe the adsorption process. According to the thermodynamic study, it was very effective at higher temperatures also. The thermodynamic parameters ∆Go, ∆Ho and ∆So were also evaluated for this adsorption.