Coating Fe 3 O 4 Magnetic Nanoparticles with Humic Acid for High Efficient Removal of Heavy Metals in Water

Humic acid (HA) coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (Fe3O4/HA) were developed for the removal of toxic Hg(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), and Cu(II) from water. Fe3O4/HA were prepared by a coprecipitation procedure with cheap and environmentally friendly iron salts and HA. TOC and XPS analysis showed the as-prepared Fe3O4/HA contains approximately 11% (w/w) of HA which are fractions abundant in O and N-based functional groups. TEM images and laser particle size analysis revealed the Fe3O4/HA (with approximately 10 nm Fe3O4 cores) aggregated in aqueous suspensions to form aggregates with an average hydrodynamic size of approximately 140 nm. With a saturation magnetization of 79.6 emu/g, the Fe3O4/HA can be simply recovered from…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China