Magnetic pomelo peel as a new absorption material for oil-polluted water

Abstract

Magnetic pomelo peel (MPP) with high oil sorption capacity was prepared by solvothermal method. The characteristics of MPP were manifested by FTIR, SEM, XRD, and vibrating sample magnetometry. Adsorption kinetics and equilibrium of diesel from aqueous solution on MPP were studied in a batch process. The kinetic studies showed good correlation coefficients for the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, and the equilibrium process was well described by the Freundlich isotherm model. The maximum sorption capacity of MPP was 27.98 g/g for diesel at 30°C. The results in this study indicated that MPP was an attractive candidate for removing oil from aqueous solutions.

Keywords:

• Pomelo peel
• Magnetic material
• Oil spill
• Sorption

Acknowledgments

The work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41373097, 41073072), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2013M541506), Program for Innovative Research Team in University (No. IRT13078).