Synthesis and properties of Fe3O4/polyaniline nanomaterial and its ability of removing arsenic in wastewater

Abstract

The synthesis of Fe3O4/polyaniline (Fe3O4/PANI) nanomaterials by a chemical method is presented in this paper. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the lattice constant a = 8.376 A0 and the particle size of is about 14.5 nm for all samples, since polymer cannot influence the crystal structure of Fe3O4. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show that the Fe3O4 grain sizes vary from 13 nm to 20 nm. The results of Raman spectral analysis and thermal gravimetric analysis reveal that the PANI partly forms in the Fe3O4/PANI nanomaterials samples. Thus, the grain size of Fe3O4/PANI nanomaterials is about of 25–30 nm, which has been confirmed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The saturated magnetic moment of Fe3O4/PANI samples is decreased from 66 emu/g to 39.7 emu/g with PANI content varying from 5% to 15%. However, Fe3O4/PANI nanomaterials are stable on chemical-physical properties and lead to improve an arsenic adsorption ability. In addition, Fe3O4/PANI sample with PANI 5% content has the highest arsenic adsorption ability in pH 7. In strong acidic or basic media, the arsenic adsorption of magnetic nanoparticles is insignificant. The results suggest the desorb can be conducted at pH 14 then the materials could reabsorb in further trials.