Low-cost magnetized Lonicera japonica flower biomass for the sorption removal of heavy metals

•Synthesized an eco-friendly magnetized iron oxide impregnated IO-LJFP for heavy metals adsorption.•The sorption kinetics of metal ions onto IO-LJFP was the rate limiting step.•It was chemisorptions with monolayer sorption on a homogeneous surface.•Enhanced sorption % of heavy metals by impregnation of iron-oxide into LJFP.•The metal ion-biomass interactions were spontaneous with endothermic nature.

Magnetized porous biomass is an eco-friendly detoxification material which is highly efficient when used to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Synthesized magnetized iron-oxide-impregnated Lonicera japonica flower biomass (IO-LJFP) was used to remove Pb(II), Co(II), and Cu(II) from aqueous solutions. Further, the physical and chemical properties of IO-LJFP were investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). The obtained results revealed that IO-LJFP is an efficient biomass material for the removal of heavy metals. Further, the equilibrium kinetics, isotherms, and mechanism of heavy metal ion sorption onto IO-LJFP were studied. From the overall batch sorption results, the sorption was found to be a rate-limiting step, with pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Langmuir monolayer sorption on a homogeneous surface involved chemisorptions. In addition, thermodynamic studies revealed that the sorption of heavy metals onto IO-LJFP at 298-328 ± 2 K was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The overall results demonstrated that the biomass used in this study, IO-LJFP, is promising, efficient, and economical when used to remove heavy metal ions from industrial wastewaters.

Graphical abstractDownload full-size image