The preparation of Fe-glycine complexes by a novel method (pulsed electric fields)

•PEF is first applied to enhance the chemical reaction in the chelating process.•The highest rate of iron-chelating was obtained by PEF treatment.•The samples structure by PEF treatment was similar to by thermal treatment.•PEF can be used as a novel synthesis method in the chelating process.

A novel method for synthesizing Fe-glycine complex by pulsed electric fields (PEFs) was developed, and the physiochemical properties of Fe-glycine complexes were evaluated in this study. Results showed that the highest yield (81.2%) of Fe-glycine complexes was obtained by PEF treatment with 4.0 kV/cm for 15 min at 25 °C, which was higher than thermal treatment of 79.5% at 60 °C for 30 min. Moreover, the highest Fe-chelating capacity was obtained at 107.13 mg/L after PEF treatment with 4.0 kV/cm for 15 min. Results from Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermal gravimetric (TG) analysis indicated that the structure of the ferrous ion-glycine complexes prepared by PEF and thermal treatment was similar. It was implied that the PEF treatment can be used as a novel and efficient method for synthesis of metal ion-amino acid complexes under moderate condition such as 25 °C and pH 6.0.