Preparation of magnetic activated carbon fibers@Fe3O4 by electrostatic self-assembly method and adsorption properties for methylene blue.

Abstract

Nano-Fe₃O₄ was loaded onto coconut-based activated carbon fibres (CACF) using an electrostatic self-assembly method. The effects of the mass ratio of CACF to nano-Fe₃O₄, loading time, pH and temperature on the loading effect were investigated and ideal loading conditions were determined. To study the adsorption performance of MACF@Fe₃O₄ for methylene blue, the effects of the initial concentration, pH and time on the adsorption were investigated and the working conditions of adsorption were established. MACF@Fe₃O₄ was systematically characterized. Adsorption kinetics were investigated under ideal conditions. The ideal loading conditions for MACF@Fe₃O₄ were as follows: mass ratio of 1:1, 20 min, pH 9.36, 22.5°C. The saturation magnetization of MACF@Fe₃O₄ was 48.2263 emu·g^-1, which could be quickly separated under an external magnetic field. When the dosage was 0.010 g, the adsorption rate reached 97.29% and the maximum adsorption capacity was 12.1616 mg·g^-1. The adsorption process conformed to pseudo-first-order kinetics during the first 15 min and pseudo-second-order kinetics during 20-120 min. The equations were $\text{ln(}{Q}_e\text{-}{\text{Q}}_t\text{)=2.2394-0.0689t}$ and $\frac{t}{Q_t}\text{=0.0774 + 0.5295t}$ , respectively. The isothermal adsorption model showed that MACF@Fe₃O₄ was more in line with the Langmuir model, indicating that the adsorption process was mainly monolayer adsorption. The thermodynamic analysis results showed that the adsorption process of MB by MACF@Fe₃O₄ was an endothermic process. In this study, MACF@Fe₃O₄ with high adsorption capacity and easy separation from coconut palm fibres has good application prospects in the field of adsorption, which can promote the high-value utilization of coconut palms.