Chitosan stabilized bimetallic Fe/Ni nanoparticles used to remove mixed contaminants-amoxicillin and Cd (II) from aqueous solutions

Wastewaters often contain organics and heavy metals and simultaneous removal of these mixed contaminants using iron-based nanoparticles is still unclear. In this paper, chitosan stabilized bimetallic Fe/Ni nanoparticles (CS-Fe/Ni) used to remove mixed contaminants such as amoxicillin and Cd (II) was reported, where only 68.9% and 81.3% of amoxicillin and Cd (II) was removed in co-existing amoxicillin and Cd (II), while 93.0% and 90.9% were removed individually with an initial concentration of 60 mg/L within 60 min. SEM and EDS confirmed that chitosan served as a stabilizer to enhance the stability of Fe/Ni and to reduce aggregation of nanoparticles, while XRD and FTIR confirmed that iron oxides were formed and Cd (II) adsorbed onto iron oxides. CS-Fe/Ni exhibited functions such as the catalytic reduction of amoxicillin and the adsorption of Cd (II), which were confirmed by a pseudo first-order kinetic degradation and a pseudo second-order kinetic adsorption model. Here the activation energy for the degradation of amoxicillin was 60.9 kJ/mol and 22.0 kJ/mol for the adsorption of Cd (II), respectively. This indicated a chemically controlled reaction and adsorption. Finally, CS-Fe/Ni used to remove amoxicillin and Cd (II) in wastewater has been demonstrated.