Removal of humic acid from aqueous solution by Fe₃O₄@L-arginine magnetic nanoparticle: kinetic and equilibrium studies

ABSTRACT

Natural organic materials, principally humic acids cause serious problems in water treatment plants due to combination with chlorine and the formation of carcinogenic disinfection by-products. In the present study, the Fe₃O₄@L-arginine magnetic nanoparticle was synthesised and used to adsorbhumic acid (HA) from the aqueous solution. Fe₃O₄@L-arginine nanoparticles were prepared withthe co-precipitation method and characterised by FE-SEM, FTIR, XRD, and zeta potential analysis. The effect of different parameters on the HA removal by Fe₃O₄@L-arginine was investigated. The results showed that by increasing the adsorbent dose, contact time and temperature, the efficiency of HA removal increased, but by increasing theinitial concentration of HA, ionic strength, and pH, the efficiency of HA elimination decreased. Under optimal conditions, the highest HA removal efficiency in 0.5 g/L and 2 g/L adsorbent doses was found to be 67.23% and 96.4%, respectively. Also, the study of isotherm and kinetic of adsorption showed that the adsorption of HA on Fe₃O₄@L-arginine followed Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic.Adsorption experiments demonstrated that Fe₃O₄@L-arginine as an effective and reusable adsorbent has a good capacity for the removal of HA from aqueous solution.

KEYWORDS:

• Adsorption
• Fe₃O₄@L-arginine nanoparticle
• humic acid
• isotherm
• kinetic

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences for supporting the current research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences [6931].