Effects of Mn, Cu doping concentration to the properties of magnetic nanoparticles and arsenic adsorption capacity in wastewater

The research results of Fe3O4 and Mn, Cu doped Fe3O4 nanomaterials synthesized by a chemical method for As(III) wastewater treatment are presented in this paper. The X-ray diffraction patterns and transmission electron microscopy images showed that samples had the cubic spinel structure with the grain sizes were varied from 9.4 nm to 18.1 nm. The results of vibrating sample magnetometer measurements at room temperature showed that saturation magnetic moments of Fe1−xCuxFe2O4 and Fe1−xMnxFe2O4 samples decreased from 65.9 emu/g to 53.2 emu/g and 65.9 emu/g to 61.5 emu/g, respectively, with the increase of Cu, Mn concentrations from 0.0 to 0.15. The nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm of a typical Fe3O4 sample at 77 K was studied in order to investigate the surface and porous structure of nanoparticles by BET method. The specific surface area of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles was calculated about of 100.2 m2/g. The pore size distribution of about 15-20 nm calculated by the BJH (Barrett, Joyner, and Halendar) method at a relative pressure P/P0 of about 1. Although the saturation magnetic moments of samples decreased when the increase of doping concentration, but the arsenic adsorption capacity of Cu doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles is better than that of Fe3O4 and Mn doped Fe3O4 nanoparticles in a solution with pH = 7. In the solution with a pH > 14, the arsenic adsorption of magnetic nanoparticles is insignificant.