One-Pot Synthesis of Novel Amino-Functionalized Fe3O4 Hybrid Microspheres for Cu(II) Removal from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

In this work, we report the development of novel amino-functionalized Fe₃O₄ hybrid microspheres adsorbent from a facial and one-step solvothermal route by using FeCl₃·6H₂O as a single iron source and 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile as ource of amino groups. During solvothermal process, the nitrile groups of 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile would bond with the Fe₃O₄ through the phthalocyanine cyclization reaction to form the amino-functionalized Fe₃O₄ magnetic nano-material, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA). From the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, the resulting monodispersed amino-functionalized Fe₃O₄ hybrid microspheres with the diameters of 180–200 nm were synthesized via the self-assembly process. More importantly, as-prepared Fe₃O₄ nano-materials with abundant amino groups exhibited high separation efficiency when they were used to remove the Cu(II) from aqueous solutions. Furthermore, the adsorption isotherms of Fe₃O₄ nano-material for Cu(II) removal fitted the Langmuir isotherm model, in which the calculated maximum adsorption capacity could increase from 5.51 to 16.25 mg g^–1 at room temperature. This work demonstrated that the amino-functionalized Fe₃O₄ magnetic nano-materials were promising as efficient adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater in low concentration.