Magnetic nanomaterials recovered from co-treatment of CN-containing electroplating wastewaters and pickle acid liquor

CN- has been widely used in electroplating and mining, generating a vast amount of CN-containing heavy-metal wastewaters. In this research paper, we present a strategy to recycle these cyanide-containing electroplating wastewaters (Ni, Zn, Cr and Fe) with pickle acid liquors (Fe) and produce magnetic nanomaterials. The process includes formation of layered double hydroxides (LDH) as the intermediates and their conversion to valuable magnetic materials. LDH intermediates were first precipitated from these two wastewaters and then thermally converted into superparamagnetic mixed oxide nanomaterials, with the crystallite size of 10-25 nm and the saturation magnetization up to 40 emu/g. Specifically, during the conversion, secondary pollution resulting from CN- was significantly reduced. This research thus demonstrates a cost-effective and safe way to treat CN-containing wastewaters and transfer to useful nanomaterials. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.