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Environmentally friendly synthesis of Fe2O3@SiO2 nanocomposite: characterization and application as an adsorbent to aniline removal from aqueous solution

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Abstract

Silica-based nanocomposite syntheses employ many harmful substances, which, in turn, demand the development of new synthetic environmental-friendly routes that meet the principles of green chemistry. In this work, we present a novel magnetic adsorbent, Fe2O3@SiO2 nanocomposite (Fe@SiNp), successfully obtained without surfactant, employing an electrochemical method. We characterized the nanocomposite and then applied it to remove aniline from the water medium. Characterization was carried out by vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The parameters to the adsorptive removal of aniline were successfully optimized, which made possible to remove 71.04 ± 0.06% (126.6 ± 2.0 mg/g) from a 100 mg/L aniline solution at pH 6 and 323 K, by employing around 50 mg of Fe@SiNp, at a contact time of 40 min. The adsorption of aniline by Fe@SiNp is a spontaneous and exothermic process according to the pseudo-second-order kinetic model (r2 = 1 at 20 mg/L aniline concentration) and the Freundlich isotherm model (r2 = 0.9986).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of Zabol, Zabol, Iran

    Abbas Rahdar

  2. Department of Environmental Health, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran

    Somayeh Rahdar

  3. Department of Chemistry, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Georgia Labuto

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  1. Abbas Rahdar
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  2. Somayeh Rahdar
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Correspondence to Somayeh Rahdar or Georgia Labuto.

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Rahdar, A., Rahdar, S. & Labuto, G. Environmentally friendly synthesis of Fe2O3@SiO2 nanocomposite: characterization and application as an adsorbent to aniline removal from aqueous solution. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 9181–9191 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07491-y

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