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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Chem.
Sec. Sorption Technologies
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvc.2024.1451262
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in the synthesis and utilization of waste-derived materials for water purification View all articles

Preparation, Characterization and Application of Polymeric Ultra-Permeable Biodegradable Ferromagnetic Nanocomposite Adsorbent for Removal of Cr(VI) from Synthetic Wastewater: Kinetics, Isotherms and Thermodynamics

Provisionally accepted
Evans Suter Evans Suter *Hilary L. Rutto Hilary L. Rutto Robert S. Makomere Robert S. Makomere Banza Musamba Banza Musamba Tumisang Seodigeng Tumisang Seodigeng Sammy L. Kiambi Sammy L. Kiambi
  • Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study explored the feasibility of employing a novel polymeric ferromagnetic nanocomposite adsorbent made of low-cost, biodegradable, and ultra-permeable materials from pulp and paper sludge for adsorptive removal of hexavalent chromium (Cr 6+ ) from synthetic wastewater. Vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface area (BET), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) were used to analyze the produced nanocomposite adsorbent. The FTIR results confirmed the presence of adsorptive peaks attributed to -OH, -NH2, and FeO. SEM micrographs revealed a porous adsorbent surface. XRD revealed the existence of the crystalline spinel-structured magnetite (Fe3O4) phase of iron oxide, while the saturation magnetization was established to be 26.90 emu/g. The BET analysis confirmed a slight decrease in the surface area of the nanocomposite adsorbent to 6.693 m 2 .g -1 , compared to Fe3O4 (7.591 m 2 .g -1 ). The optimum conditions for Cr 6+ removal were pH 2.0, 1.0 g/L adsorbent dose, room temperature (25 °C), 120 minutes of contact time, and 20 mg/L pollutant concentration. During removal, the Cr(VI) was adsorbed by electrostatic attraction and/or reduced to trivalent chromium Cr(III). At low starting Cr(VI) concentrations, chemisorption dominated the removal process, but as concentrations increased, physisorption became more significant. The prepared nanocomposite adsorbent presented exceptional removal efficiency of up to 92.23%, indicating that it may be useful for the adsorption of metal ions from industrial and household wastewater.

    Keywords: Adsorption, Nanocomposite adsorbent, Chromium (VI), Equilibrium studies, Co-existing ions, wastewater treatment

    Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 08 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Suter, Rutto, Makomere, Musamba, Seodigeng and Kiambi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Evans Suter, Vaal University of Technology, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.