Fabrication of manganese ferrite/graphene oxide nanocomposites for removal of nickel ions, methylene blue from water

Nowadays, environmental pollution has increasingly been causing serious issues to human health, especially regards to water pollution. Heavy metals and organic dyes are majorenvironmental pollutants. In this study, manganese ferrite/graphene oxide (MnFe2O4/GO) nanocomposites were fabricated by in situ method and used as an adsorbent for the removal of nickel ions (Ni2+), methylene blue (MB) from water. The MnFe2O4/GO nanocomposite with a mass ratio of MnFe2O4 to GO of 1:1 (FGO2) had high adsorption capacity and was easily separated by external magnetic field. The adsorption data of FGO2 fitted well with a pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models. The maximum adsorption capacities of FGO2 for Ni2+ and MB were determined to be 152.67 and 89.29 mg/g, respectively. MnFe2O4/GO nanocomposite was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area, and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). FGO2 had the BET specific surface area of 78.46 m(2)/g and VSM of 28.74 emu/g. Based on these results, the FGO2 could be considered as a highly efficient adsorbent for the removal of Ni2+, MB from water.