Synthesis of nano-magnetite and magnetite/synthetic geopolymer nano-porous composite for application as a novel adsorbent

Abstract

In this work magnetite/geopolymer composite (MGP) were synthesized using a chemical co-precipitation technique. The synthesized materials were characterized using several techniques such as: “X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), vibrating sample-magnetometer (VSM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barrentt-Joyner-Halenda (BJH)” to determine the structure and morphology of the obtained material. The analysis indicated that metaloxide predominantly appeared at the shape of the spinel structure of magnetite, and that the presence of nano-magnetite had a substantial impact on the surface area and pore structure of the geopolymer. Geopolymer and MGP specific surface areas were determined to be 26.60 and 69.04m2/g, respectively. MGP was utilized as an adsorbent for the removal of antibiotic (tetracycline) to demonstrate the role of Fe3O4 after precipitating on the geopolymer surface. It was found that a 10% Fe3O4/geopolymer mass ratio had excellent adsorption performance towards tetracycline (TC), with a removal rate of more than 90%, which was much greater than that of individual Fe3O4 and geopolymer. The Langmuir and Freundlish models provided an accurate description of the experimental data.