Open AccessSynthesis of magnetite macro-bead for water remediation: process optimization via manipulation of bead size and surface morphology
Author(s) -
S. Y. Wai,
Swee Pin Yeap,
Zeinab Abbas Jawad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/463/1/012177
Subject(s) - bead , magnetite , chemical engineering , materials science , adsorption , filtration (mathematics) , magnetic separation , morphology (biology) , environmental remediation , nanoparticle , particle size , magnetite nanoparticles , nanotechnology , magnetic nanoparticles , composite material , chemistry , metallurgy , organic chemistry , contamination , ecology , biology , engineering , statistics , mathematics , genetics
Particulate-based adsorbents have been actively researched for water remediation. Despite being successful, this approach raises technical concern toward the end of its’ implementation whereby the adsorbents are to be separated from the treated water. Separating the adsorbents via common filtration or centrifugation can be energy-intensive. Noting this, the present study prepared magnetite macro-beads (MMB) which can be easily isolated using a magnetic collector. Here, magnetite nanoparticles were impregnated into calcium alginate bead via facile drop-wise addition. The formed MMB was found effective in dye removal and the efficiency can be optimized by manipulate the bead’s size and surface morphology. In specific, MMB of size 2.0 mm outperformed the bigger counterparts. In terms of surface morphology, large quantity of magnetite nanoparticles loading (≥10 g/L) blocked major pores of the alginate surface and reduced its efficiency. More importantly, the MMB can be rapidly separated (in < 5 seconds) using a NdFeB magnet owing to cooperative magnetophoresis effect.