Facilely Magnetized CuZnFe2O4-Activated Carbon Composite as an Efficient Recyclable Adsorbent of Cationic Dyes

In this work, a CuZnFe(2)O(4-)loaded activated carbon composite (CZF-AC) was synthesized by a simple one-pot hydrothermal method. The obtained material was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), which proved that it possessed good magnetic response and retained the physical and chemical properties of the original activated carbon. Cationic dyes such as methylene blue, malachite green, and rhodamine B were removed from aqueous solutions using the obtained magnetic activated carbon as the adsorbent. The adsorption behavior of these cationic dyes onto the CZF-AC was systematically studied via dynamic and equilibrium adsorption experiments. Good adsorption capacity (100 to 970 mg dye/g CZF-AC), fast adsorption kinetics (reaching equilibrium within 20 min), and excellent reusability (no adsorption performance loss even after 4 adsorption-desorption round were observed for the synthesized CZF-AC. This work not only provides a facile method for the construction of magnetic carbon adsorbents but also gives a potential green magnetization strategy for other functional materials.