One-Pot Synthesis of Novel Amino-Functionalized Fe3O4 Hybrid Microspheres for Cu(II) Removal from Aqueous Solutions

In this work, we report the development of novel amino-functionalized Fe3O4 hybrid microspheres adsorbent from a facial and one-step solvothermal route by using FeCl3 center dot 6H(2)O as a single iron source and 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile as ource of amino groups. During solvothermal process, the nitrile groups of 3-aminophenoxy-phthalonitrile would bond with the Fe3O4 through the phthalocyanine cyclization reaction to form the amino-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nano-material, which was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA). From the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, the resulting monodispersed amino-functionalized Fe3O4 hybrid microspheres with the diameters of 180-200 nm were synthesized via the self-assembly process. More importantly, as-prepared Fe3O4 nano-materials with abundant amino groups exhibited high separation efficiency when they were used to remove the Cu(II) from aqueous solutions. Furthermore, the adsorption isotherms of Fe3O4 nano-material for Cu(II) removal fitted the Langmuir isotherm model, in which the calculated maximum adsorption capacity could increase from 5.51 to 16.25 mg g(-1) at room temperature. This work demonstrated that the amino-functionalized Fe3O4 magnetic nano-materials were promising as efficient adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater in low concentration.