Thiourea-modified Fe3O4/graphene oxide nanocomposite as an efficient adsorbent for recycling Coomassie brilliant blue from aqueous solutions

Abstract

Herein, a novel thiourea modified Fe3O4/graphene oxide magnetic nanocomposite (TMGO) is first constructed for absorbing a dye named Coomassie brilliant blue (CBB) from aqueous solutions. The as-prepared adsorbent is characterized by an X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), a vibrating sample magnetometer (VMS), a field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a scan transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS), and a specific surface area instrument (BET). TMGO adsorbent shows good magnetic response with high dispersibility. At optimized conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity of TMGO nanocomposite reaches 294.4 mg•g−1 at pH 2.0 beyond the initial concentration of the CBB at 90.0 mg•L−1. The CBB is facilely desorbed from the TMGO adsorbent with ethanol, which makes the realization for recycling the dye. It presents excellent reusability and maintains outstanding absorbing/desorbing properties after recycled 7 times. This research provides a new strategy for effectively recycling adsorbent and recovering CBB dye in one system.