Synthesis of magnetic biocomposite for efficient adsorption of azo dye from aqueous solution

•A novel water treatment magnetic composite adsorbent for removal of azo dyes.•Fast adsorption and high adsorption capacity for azo dye were observed.•The adsorbent can be effectively regenerated and reused.

A novel magnetic biocomposite was synthesized using metal chlorides and aquatic macrophytes by co-precipitation method. The resulting product, magnetic biocomposite was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Scanning electron microscope (SEM). The adsorption performance of the magnetic biocomposite was tested with removal of Metanil Yellow dye from aqueous solution. The effect of influencing parameters such as initial dye concentration, solution pH and agitation were investigated. The equilibrium isotherm was well described by the Langmuir model with the with maximum adsorption capacity of 90.91 mg/g. Adsorption kinetics experiments were carried out and the data were well fitted by a pseudo-second-order equation. The results revealed that the magnetic biocomposite could efficiently adsorb the azo dyes from aqueous solution, and the spent adsorbents could be recovered completely by magnetic separation process. Therefore, the prepared magnetic biocomposite could thus be used as promising adsorbent for the removal of azo dyes from polluted water.