Investigation of Cu(II) removal by cobalt-doped iron oxide captured in PVA-alginate beads

Polyethylene glycol-coated magnetic nanoparticles of Co-Fe2O3 were prepared by a simple co-precipitation method and embedded in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-alginate beads to remove the Cu(II) from the aqueous solution. The performance of Cu(II) removal was then investigated by adding the PVA-alginate Co-Fe2O3 beads into the Cu(II) synthetic solution at various operating condition. The results showed that the removal of Cu(II) by the synthesized beads was pH dependent and the optimal pH for Cu(II) removal was at pH 6 with 8% nanoparticle loading. The Cu(II) adsorption onto the adsorbent could also be characterized well using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm with R-2>0.95.