One-Pot Synthesis of Novel Amino-Functionalized Fe3O4 Hybrid Microspheres for Cu(II) Removal from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

In this work, we report the development of novel amino-functionalized Fe3O4 hybrid microspheres adsorbent from a facial and one-step solvothermal route by using FeCl3·6H2O as a single iron source and 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile as ource of amino groups. During solvothermal process, the nitrile groups of 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile would bond with the Fe3O4 through the phthalocyanine cyclization reaction to form the amino-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nano-material, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA). From the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, the resulting monodispersed amino-functionalized Fe3O4 hybrid microspheres with the diameters of 180–200 nm were synthesized via the self-assembly process. More importantly, as-prepared Fe3O4 nano-materials with abundant amino groups exhibited high separation efficiency when they were used to remove the Cu(II) from aqueous solutions. Furthermore, the adsorption isotherms of Fe3O4 nano-material for Cu(II) removal fitted the Langmuir isotherm model, in which the calculated maximum adsorption capacity could increase from 5.51 to 16.25 mg g–1 at room temperature. This work demonstrated that the amino-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nano-materials were promising as efficient adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater in low concentration.