Fabrication and characterisation of magnetic graphene oxide incorporated Fe3O4@polyaniline for the removal of bisphenol A, t-octyl-phenol, and α-naphthol from water

Abstract

In this study, we fabricated a novel material composed of magnetic graphene oxide incorporated Fe3O4@polyaniline (Fe3O4@PANI-GO) using a modified Hummers' method, solvothermal, and two-step polymerisation method. The resulting products were characterised by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that magnetic Fe3O4@PANI particles were successfully loaded onto the surface of the graphene oxide. Further Fe3O4@PANI-GO was investigated to remove bisphenol A(BPA), α-naphthol, and t-octyl-phenol (t-OP) from water samples by magnetic solid phase extraction. Under the optimal conditions, the Fe3O4@PANI-GO composite exhibited good adsorption capacity for t-OP, BPA, and α-naphthol, and the adsorption of these followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Adsorption isotherms fit the Langmuir model, and the adsorption was an endothermic and spontaneous process. This work indicated that Fe3O4@PANI-GO earned great application prospect for removing phenolic contaminants from polluted water.