New Smart Magnetic Ionic Liquid Nanocomposites Based on Chemically Bonded Imidazole Silica for Water Treatment.

Abstract

New magnetic silica imidazolium ionic liquid nanocomposites were synthesized by a sol–gel technique. The (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTS) was condensed with glyoxal and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde in acetic acid to produce an amino-modified silica ionic liquid (Si-IIL). The APTS was condensed with TEOS in ethanol and water to prepare amino-modified SiO2 nanoparticles. The produced amino-modified SiO2 silica was condensed with glyoxal and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde in acetic acid to produce chemically bonded silica SiO2-IIL. The SiO2-IIL and Si-IIL were used as capping agents during and after the formation of magnetite nanoparticles in ammonia to produce magnetic SiO2-IIL-Fe3O4 and Fe3O4-Si-IIL adsorbents, respectively. Their chemical structure, morphology, crystalline lattice structure, surface charges, particle sizes, and magnetic characteristics elucidated the formation of core–shell and highly dispersed magnetic nanocomposites. The saturation magnetization values of Fe3O4-Si-IIL and SiO2-IIL-Fe3O4 were 35.3 and 30.8, respectively. The uniform dispersed disconnected spherical morphologies appeared for Fe3O4-Si-IIL hybrid and the core–shell spherical morphology obtained with SiO2-IIL-Fe3O4 hybrid NPs. The Fe3O4-Si-IIL and SiO2-IIL-Fe3O4 show an excellent high chemical adsorption capacities as 460.3 and 300.9 mg·g–1, respectively (not reported in the literature) when used as an adsorbent to remove CB-R250 water pollutant under optimum conditions. Their applicability and reusability as fast and highly effective adsorbents for Coomassie blue (CB-R250) organic water pollutants were investigated.