Amino-functionalized silica magnetite nanoparticles for the simultaneous removal of pollutants from aqueous solution

Amino-functionalized silica magnetite nanoparticles (A-S-MNPs) have been prepared through coating of sono-synthesized magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) in a basic medium by SiO2. Then, the resultant silica magnetite nanoparticles (S-MNPs) were modified with 3-aminpropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The modification was carried out by the organic solvent method in dry hexane to graft amine groups on the surface. The adsorption behavior of this novel magnetic sorbent was studied for the simultaneous removal of two organic pollutants containing the sulfonate group, e.g., Reactive Black 5 (RB5) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) in aqueous solutions. The results show that a pseudo-second-order model fits well the experimental data and the rate constant of adsorption for SDBS is higher than for RB5. The adsorption capacity was obtained by the Langmuir isotherm. The q(max) was 83.33 and 62.5 mg/g for RB5 and SDBS at pH 2 and 298 K, respectively. Furthermore, the loaded A-S-MNPs can be recovered easily from aqueous solution by magnetic separation and regenerated by simply washing with 0.1 M NaOH solution. Therefore, the synthesized novel magnetic sorbent can be used as an effective and recyclable adsorbent for the simultaneous removal of dye and surfactant from aqueous solutions. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.