Recyclable Fe3O4@C nanocomposite as potential adsorbent for a wide range of organic dyes and simulated hospital effluents

The present work reported the utilization of Fe3O4@C nanocomposite for removing a series of six organic dyes from aqueous solutions and dealing with simulated hospital effluents. Single-step fabrication of magnetic Fe3O4@C nanocomposite was facilely performed at 500 degrees C. This material was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Core-shell Fe3O4 NPs (similar to 40 nm in average size) were dispersed well and encapsulated by ultrathin carbon coatings with the thickness of 4-5 nm. Fe3O4@C nanocomposite owned surface functional groups important for dyes adsorption. The adsorption results showed that maximum adsorption capacity values of organic dyes on Fe3O4@C obeyed an order as follows: methyl orange (38.03 mg/g) < rhodamine B (87.32 mg/g) < methylene blue (95.61 mg/g) < methyl red (153.1 mg/g) < congo red (165.3 mg/g) < crystal violet (181.6 mg/g). Two simulated hospital effluents could also be treated from 63.6-84.5% using this nanocomposite. In addition, Fe3O4@C could be reused up to 5 cycles without considerable decrease in uptake capacity. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.