Synthesis of iron-based nanoparticles by green tea extract and their degradation of malachite

In this paper, green tea extract was used to synthesize iron nanoparticles (GT-Fe NPs) and degrade malachite green (MG) in aqueous solution. The results show that the damage to morphology and increase in size of GT-Fe NPs after reaction with MG were observed by SEM and EDS. XRD shows that there are few changes in the characteristic peaks of GT-Fe NPs before and after reaction. UV-vis spectroscopy shows that the absorption peak of MG decreased, while FTIR shows that the band at 1585 cm−1 corresponded to the phenyl after reaction. The factors impacting on the removal efficiency of MG, including the initial solution pH, the initial concentration of MG, the dosage of GT-Fe NPs, and the reaction temperature, was also investigated. It emerged that 96% of MG was removed with a 50 mg/L at 298 K. Kinetics studies showed that the removal of MG fitted well to the pseudo first-order mode.