Magnetically Aligned Nanocomposite as A Novel Adsorbent for Copper Ions Removal

An adsorption study on Cu2+ ions removal using magnetically aligned nanocomposite was carried out. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of aligning nano-magnetite particles in porous matrix on the adsorption of Cu2+ ions. In this research, nanocomposite was prepared by embedding silica gel with co-precipitated nano-magnetite particles, Fe3O4. Several different nanocomposites namely the magnetically aligned gel, and non-align gel were synthesized and compared in terms of their Cu(II) ions removal efficiency from aqueous solution. The findings showed that the magnetically aligned gel resulted in the highest adsorption capacity at 23 g/g and removal efficiency of 34.4%. With such exploratory approach, the results in this research are indicating the effectiveness of nano-magnetite particles alignment method in a gel matrix in enhancing the Cu(II) ions removal performance.