Removal study of Cu(II), Fe(II) and Ni(II) ions from wastewater using polymer-coated cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) magnetic nanoparticles adsorbent

Now days, heavy metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems. The magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have received great attention to solving the problems as adsorbent materials due to their unique physical and chemical properties. CoFe₂O₄ MNPs was prepared by co-precipitation method, and its application for removal of Cu(II), Fe(II) and Ni(II) ions from wastewater. The various structural as well as morphological properties were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis. Factor of affecting adsorption including temperature, contact time, particles size, magnetic properties and additional Polyethylene glycol (PEG-4000) as coating agent of adsorbent were further investigated. The results show that maximum Fe(II) was adsorbed at all of various parameters. Adsorption process of heavy metal ions from wastewater was known as increase as temperature range from RT to 60°C, but decrease at 120°C for Cu(II) and Ni(II). The maximum adsorption of Cu(II) and Ni(II) also occurs at the smallest particle size, 4nm. On the other hand, percentage of removing metal ions using PEG-coated MNPs decrease comparing to Co-MNPs without coating, for Cu(II), Fe(II), and Ni(II) is 97.1%, 100%, and 99.6%, respectively. The ability of Co-MNPs for removing metal ions decrease after coated using PEG-4000 maybe due to the small surface area and existence of polymer as nonmagnetic. Furthermore, the result of this experiment revealed that CoFe₂O₄ MNPs can be used as the effective adsorbent to remove metal ions in the wastewater.