Remediation of lead (II) ions from aqueous solution using composites of iron oxide nanoparticles immobilized on microcrystalline cellulose

Abstract

Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles immobilized on microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) are studied for the adsorption of Pb(II) ions from an aqueous solution. Composites of iron oxide and MCC were synthesized with a 5%–20% loading of iron (w/w%). The effect of pH, concentration, and contact time was studied. The adsorption isotherms were fitted to nonlinear Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms, and kinetics were studied for pseudo-first and second-order kinetic fit models. Adsorption of Pb(II) ions increased with increasing pH value up to 5. Maximum adsorption of Pb(II) was observed up to 299.91 mg⁻¹ in D-R equilibrium for onto MCC-Iron oxide composite for composite with iron loading of 20% at pH 5.