Super-paramagnetic nano-architecture and its tunable removal efficiency for organic pollutants

• Nano-architectures assembled by hollow spheres, conductive polymer, and graphene.
• Graphene sheets effectively enhance the efficiency and stability of absorbents.
• Super-paramagnetic nano-architectures with favorable dispersibility in wasterwater.
• Nano-materials with tunable absorption ability and convenient magnetic separation.

In this work, super-paramagnetic nano-architecture was designed to remove the organic pollutants effectively from the waste water. The nano-architectures are composed of super-paramagnetic Fe3O4 hollow spheres, conductive polymer and graphene sheets (RGO) to form binary and ternary nano-architectures. They could be magnetically separated and well-distributed into wastewater again for recycle use. Due to the special function of PPy shell, the binary Fe3O4@PPy core-shell structure exhibits pH-responsive removal efficiency for organic pollutants. Assembling the Fe3O4@PPy core-shell material with RGO sheets could largely improve their surface area, pore volume, and enhance their chemical stability in acid and alkaline solution. Therefore, the Fe3O4@PPy@RGO ternary nano-adsorbents could show favorable and robust removal performance for organic pollutants no matter in neutral, acidic and alkaline environment.

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