Production of an Efficient Magnetic Adsorbent From Babassu Coconut Endocarp and Ni Particles for Easy Dye Removal From Mimetic Contaminated Effluents

Abstract

Ni metal particles, with sizes ranging from 70 to 110 nm, dispersed in activated carbon produced from the babassu coconut endocarp (BAC) were successfully synthesized and evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, dispersive energy X-ray spectroscopy, flame atomic absorption spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. These hybrid BACNi-X materials (where X is the Ni / BAC ratio, equal to 10, 20 or 30) exhibit crystalline Ni particles with suitable magnetic properties, shown by increased saturation magnetization and a gradual reduction in coercive fields (varying 80 to 150 Oe) as the Ni content increases. Relatively large values ​​of pore volume (in the range of 0.28-0.37 cm3/g), specific surface area (560-740 m2/g) are achieved, favoring their applications for magnetic remediation of mimetic contaminated effluents. All hybrid samples were tested positively for the adsorption of methylene blue in contaminated synthetic effluents and the greatest removal was achieved by the hybrid sample BACNi-10, which has the largest specific area and reasonable magnetic properties that allowed the manipulation of the sample by an external field.