Synthesis of magnetic microspheres with sodium alginate and activated carbon for removal of methylene blue

Abstract

Based on the adsorption performance of composite microspheres with activated carbon (AC) and sodium alginate (SA), as well as the magnetic property of Fe3O4, we designed and explored an efficient strategy to prepare a unique, multifunctional Fe3O4/AC/SA composite absorbent (MSA-AC) that extracted dye from aqueous solution. The composite exhibited the following advantages: rapid and simple to prepare, environmentally friendly process, low-cost, recyclability, and multi-functionality. The physicochemical properties of the prepared magnetic microspheres were measured, and methylene blue (MB) was selected to investigate the performance of the magnetic absorbent. The results showed a maximum adsorption capacity of 222.3 mg/g for MB. Adsorption studies revealed that the data of adsorption isotherms and kinetics fit the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm model.