Synthesis of mesoporous Fe2O3/SBA-15 and its application for nickel (II) ion adsorption

Abstract

The uniform mesoporous Fe2O3/SBA-15 has been succesfully synthesized by classical impregnation of iron nitrate acid in the presence of mesoporous silica SBA-15 followed by ultrasonication, microwave treatment and calcination. The characterization of mesoporous Fe2O3/SBA-15 material structures using FTIR spectroscopy, powder X-Ray Diffraction, Nitrogen adsorption-desorption, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX). The result of FTIR analysis showed that mesoporous Fe2O3/SBA-15 silica material sieves had silanol (Si-OH), siloxyl (Si-O-Si), and Fe-O, while the XRD analysis showed that iron oxide was completely impregnated on mesoporous silica SBA-15 surface. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis showed that surface area of mesoporous Fe2O3/SBA-15 material was 479 m2/g with volume of 0.87 cm3/g, and a pore diameter of 6.50 nm. Adsorption Performance of Fe2O3/SBA-15 material investigated by using nickel (II) ions as adsorbate model. The optimum contact time result was analyzed with adsorption kinetics model. The optimum contact time of adsorption of Fe2O3/SBA-15 mesoporous material to Ni (II) ion was 240 min. with optimum adsorption capacity of 352.982 mg/g. The optimum contact time data shows that the Fe2O3/SBA-15 silica mesoporous material in adsorption of nickel (II) ions follows the Lagergren kinetic model.