Facile Preparation of Magnetic CuFe2O4 on Sepiolite/GO Nanocomposites for Efficient Removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from Aqueous Solution

Israa Othman; Fawzi Banat; Shadi W Hasan; Cyril Aubry; Sundaramurthy Suresh; Mika Sillanpää; Mohammad Abu Haija

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c02006

Facile Preparation of Magnetic CuFe₂O₄ on Sepiolite/GO Nanocomposites for Efficient Removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from Aqueous Solution

ACS Omega. 2023 Oct 12;8(42):38828-38838. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c02006. eCollection 2023 Oct 24.

Authors

Israa Othman¹, Fawzi Banat^{2

3}, Shadi W Hasan^{2

3}, Cyril Aubry⁴, Sundaramurthy Suresh⁵, Mika Sillanpää^{6

7}, Mohammad Abu Haija^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates.
³ Center for Membranes and Advanced Water Technology (CMAT), Khalifa University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 127788, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
⁴ Department of Research Laboratories Operations, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology Bhopal, 462003 Bhopal, MP, India.
⁶ Faculty of Environment and Chemical Engineering, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam.
⁷ Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Mining, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering, University of Johannesburg, P. O. Box 17011, Doornfontein 2028, South Africa.
⁸ Advanced Materials Chemistry Center (AMCC), Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles were synthesized and immobilized on sepiolite fibers and graphene oxide sheets, producing a CuFe₂O₄/sepiolite/GO (CFSG) nanocomposite via a facile single-pot method. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized using TEM, FTIR, SEM-EDX, XRD, and TGA techniques to determine its composition, structure, and thermal stability. The adsorptive removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions was studied using the synthesized CFSG nanocomposite. Adsorption parameters such as CFSG loading, pH, contact time, and temperature were investigated. The CFGS nanocomposite showed a higher Pb(II) removal (q_m = 238.1 mg/g) compared to Cd(II) (q_m = 14.97 mg/g) in a Pb(II) and Cd(II) binary system. The Pb(II) and Cd(II) adsorption fitted well with the Langmuir model, followed by the pseudo-second-order model, and was found spontaneous. Adsorption thermodynamic analysis showed that the Pb(II) adsorption process was exothermic while Cd(II) adsorption was endothermic. The CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles on the CFSG surface could facilitate the adsorption of heavy metal ions through electrostatic interaction and complexation processes.