Azo dye-functionalized magnetic Fe3O4/polyacrylic acid nanoadsorbent for removal of lead (II) ions

We report the fabrication of a nanoadsorbent for the removal of heavy metals. The nanoadsorbent is comprised of ferric oxide (Fe3O4) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) covalently conjugated with polyacrylic acid (PAA) and further functionalized with an azo dye (Congo red, CR) using carbodiimide. This Fe3O4 core and PAA-CR shell system (MNP/PAA-CR) exhibited binding affinity towards various cations (Pb2+, Fe2+, Fe3+, Cd2+, and Cu2+) at room temperature. Using MNP/PAA-CR we studied its heavy metal removal effectiveness and kinetics targeting Pb2+ under various reactions conditions including time and pH. The Pb2+ removal efficiency and adsorption capacity were maximal at pH 6.5 and 45 min of reaction time, and the Pb2+ adsorption kinetics better fit a pseudo second-order model than a first-order model. The adsorption of Pb2+ by MNP/PAA-CR was also investigated by the so-called Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms, and the Langmuir isotherm predicted a maximum absorption of 195.3 mg.g-1. Our results further indicated that MNP/PAA-CR is potentially reusable after desorption of the adsorbed metal with only small decline in adsorption ability over five consecutive cycles of regeneration.