Core-shell Fe-SiO2-polyamine magnetic nanoparticles for metal recovery using a continuous flow pipeline reactor

Abstract

A series of core-shell magnetic nanomaterials have been synthesized with the intent of applying them for metal ion capture in a newly designed pipeline reactor. The synthetic chemistry is an extension of a previously developed family of materials based on amorphous silica gel, which has been used in the mining and remediation industries. The nanoparticles were characterized by infrared spectroscopy and TEM and SEM techniques. The size of the starting magnetite core was critical to the behavior of the particles under metal sequestering conditions. The capture kinetics of the resulting nanoagregates is 10 times faster than related micro composites. All of the tests performed point to the future successful development of a technology that circumvents the disadvantages associated with the use of column based microparticles.