CuFe2O4/activated carbon composite: A novel magnetic adsorbent for the removal of acid orange II and catalytic regeneration

Abstract

CuFe 2 O 4 /activated carbon magnetic adsorbents, which combined the adsorption features of activated carbon with the magnetic and the excellent catalytic properties of powdered CuFe 2 O 4 , were developed using a simple chemical coprecipitation procedure. The prepared magnetic composites can be used to adsorb acid orange II (AO7) in water and subsequently, easily be separated from the medium by a magnetic technique. CuFe 2 O 4 /activated carbon magnetic adsorbents with mass ratio of 1:1, 1:1.5 and 1:2 were prepared. Magnetization measurements, BET surface area measurements, powder XRD and SEM were used to characterize the prepared adsorbents. The results indicate that the magnetic phase present is spinel copper ferrite and the presence of CuFe 2 O 4 did not significantly affect the surface area and pore structure of the activated carbon. The adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherm of acid orange II (AO7) onto the composites at pH 5.2 also showed that the presence of CuFe 2 O 4 did not affect the adsorption capacity of the activated carbon. The thermal decomposition of AO7 adsorbed on the activated carbon and the composite was investigated by in situ FTIR, respectively. The results suggest that the composite has much higher catalytic activity than that of activated carbon, attributed to the presence of CuFe 2 O 4 . The variation of the adsorption capacity of the composites after several adsorption-regeneration cycles has also been studied.

Research progress of novel adsorption processes in water purification: A review

“…Interestingly, no reduction in adsorption capacity was produced by the formation of the composite when used to adsorb Acid Orange II from water, compared with original activated carbon. The adsorption isotherm in Fig.6 can exhibit this result (Zhang et al, 2007a). Furthermore, the decomposition process of Acid Orange II adsorbed on the surface of activated carbon and the composite in an inert atmosphere was studied by the authors using in situ FTIR technique.…”

“…To combine the high adsorption capacity of activated carbon with the magnetic and excellent catalytic properties of powdered CuFe 2 O 4 , Zhang et al (2007a) synthesized a novel magnetic CuFe 2 O 4 /activated carbon composite adsorbent using a chemical co-precipitation method. The characteristics such magnetization and BET surface area of the obtained adsorbent were determined.…”

“…Among all the approaches proposed, adsorption is one of the most popular methods and is currently considered as an effective, efficient, and economic method for water purification. The adsorbents used include activated carbon (Nouri et al, 2002;Pereira et al, 2003), clay minerals (Celis et al, 2000;Abollino et al, 2003), zeolites (Oliveira et al, 2004), metal oxides (Wu et al, , 2005Zhang et al, 2007a), agricultural wastes (Robinson et al, 2002), biomass (Loukidou et al, 2003) and polymeric materials (Atia et al,2003).…”

Effects of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ratio impregnated onto local commercial activated carbon coconut shell powder on the dye removal efficiency

“…In the recent years, several investigators (Oliveira et al, 2002;Zhang et al, 2007;Faulconer et al, 2012) have given attention to magnetic adsorbent applications, particularly because the used magnetic adsorbent is subsequently easily separated from the treated wastewater or slurries with a magnetic field in within a relatively short time (Indira and Lakshmi, 2010). The present study concerned on the modification of local commercial AC coconut shell powder to produce magnetic AC (MAC) for dye removal.…”

Removal of lead from aqueous solutions by a poly(acrylic acid)/bentonite nanocomposite

“…Activated carbon is the most extensively used adsorbent in water purification processes. However, it has some disadvantages including high cost, problems of regeneration, and difficulties of separation from wastewater (Wang et al 2009a, b;Zhang et al 2007). Recently, much attention has been paid to clay minerals such as bentonite (Zhao et al 2010;Ulusoy and Simsek 2005;Futalan et al 2011), attapulgite (Wang et al 2009a, b;Chen and Wang 2009;Zhao et al 2009), kaolinite (Unuabonah et al 2008a, b) and zeolite (Ulusoy and Simsek 2005) as low-cost adsorbents with high specific surface area, chemical and mechanical stability, and high cation exchange capacities (CEC).…”