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Phenol adsorption on surface-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles: modeling of the kinetics, isotherm, and mechanism

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Abstract

Phenol adsorption from aqueous solution was carried out using uncoated and methyl acrylic acid (MAA)-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs), having size <10 nm, as adsorbents. Batch adsorption studies revealed that the phenol removal efficiency of MAA-coated NPs (950 mg g−1) is significantly higher than that of uncoated NPs (550 mg g−1) under neutral to acidic conditions. However, this improvement disappears above pH 9. The adsorption data under optimized conditions (pH 7) were modeled with pseudo-first- and pseudo-second-order kinetics and subjected to Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. The analysis determined that pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Freundlich model are appropriate for both uncoated and MAA-coated NPs (all R 2 > 0.98). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of pristine and phenol-adsorbed NPs revealed core-level binding energy and charge for Fe(2s) and O(1s) on the NP surfaces. The calculations suggest that phenol adsorption onto MAA-coated NPs is a charge transfer process, where the adsorbate (phenol) acts as an electron donor and the NP surface (Fe, O) as an electron acceptor. However, a physisorption process appears to be the relevant mechanism for uncoated NPs.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from “The GAIA Project” funded by the Ministry of Environment, Korea (2014000550004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, INHA University, Incheon, 22212, Korea

    Soon Uk Yoon, Biswanath Mahanty, Hun Moon Ha & Chang Gyun Kim

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  1. Soon Uk Yoon
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  2. Biswanath Mahanty
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  3. Hun Moon Ha
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  4. Chang Gyun Kim
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Correspondence to Chang Gyun Kim.

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Yoon, S.U., Mahanty, B., Ha, H.M. et al. Phenol adsorption on surface-functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles: modeling of the kinetics, isotherm, and mechanism. J Nanopart Res 18, 170 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3478-y

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