Preparation and application of novel magnetically separable γ-Fe2O3/activated carbon sphere adsorbent

Magnetic γ-Fe2O3/activated carbon microspheres have been synthesized by an activation process of carbon microspheres containing iron oxides, which were prepared by hydrothermal method. The structure and morphology of the magnetic porous carbon microspheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), thermogravimetry and differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA) and N2 adsorption–desorption technique. The results showed that the as-prepared activated carbon spheres were the composite of single-phase γ-Fe2O3 and activated carbon material, and the content of carbon was about 3.87%. Using methyl orange as model pollutant, the magnetic porous carbon microspheres showed good adsorption capacities of 44.65 mg/g. The isotherm evaluations revealed that the Langmuir model attained better fits to the experimental equilibrium data than the Freundlich model. These magnetic porous carbon microspheres could potentially be applied in separation processes.

► Magnetic γ-Fe2O3 particles have been successfully in situ fabricated in the FexOy@C composites.
► The as-prepared γ-Fe2O3/C microspheres were the composite of single-phase γ-Fe2O3 and activated carbon material
► The porous γ-Fe2O3/C microspheres as sorbent exhibited high adsorption efficiency and high capacity towards methyl orange.