Dispersedly embedded loading of Fe3O4 nanoparticles into graphene nanosheets for highly efficient and recyclable removal of heavy metal ions

Gang Zhou; Xiaoyong Xu; Wenchang Zhu; Bing Feng; Jingguo Hu

doi:10.1039/C5NJ00897B

Dispersedly embedded loading of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles into graphene nanosheets for highly efficient and recyclable removal of heavy metal ions†

Gang Zhou,^a Xiaoyong Xu,*^ab Wenchang Zhu,^a Bing Feng^a and Jingguo Hu*^a

* Corresponding authors

^a School of Physics Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, China
E-mail: xxy@yzu.edu.cn, jghu@yzu.edu.cn

^b State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Abstract

The regulated loading of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) into a graphene nanosheet (NS) matrix along with the process of reducing graphene oxide (GO) has been achieved via a facile hydrothermal self-assembly strategy. The optimized graphene/Fe₃O₄ (GF) composite with dispersedly embedded hybridization which yields a high surface area serving as active adsorption sites and providing effective protection of the Fe₃O₄ NPs against release, aggregation, oxidation or dissolution in wastewater, as well as stable superparamagnetism allowing fast magnetic recycling. It exhibits fast Cr(VI) removal with a high adsorption capacity in acidic and neutral solutions, and the adsorption kinetics follow the pseudo-second-order model in accordance with the chemisorption in nature. Moreover, the adsorption performance shows a broad-spectrum universality to various heavy metal ions including Fe(III), Cu(II), Cd(II), etc. and has recyclability after pH-manipulated desorption, thus the GF composite has been demonstrated as a promising separable adsorbent for removing heavy metals from wastewater.

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5NJ00897B
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 11 Apr 2015
Accepted: 08 Jul 2015
First published: 14 Jul 2015

Download Citation

New J. Chem., 2015,39, 7355-7362

Author version available

Download author version (PDF)

Permissions

Request permissions

Dispersedly embedded loading of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles into graphene nanosheets for highly efficient and recyclable removal of heavy metal ions

G. Zhou, X. Xu, W. Zhu, B. Feng and J. Hu, New J. Chem., 2015, 39, 7355 DOI: 10.1039/C5NJ00897B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

New Journal of Chemistry