Fast and Efficient Removal of Oil from Water Surface Through Activated Carbon and Iron Oxide-Magnetic Nanocomposite

An efficient magnetized nanocomposite material adsorbent is made from agricultural waste like banana stem based activated carbon and combined with iron oxide nanoparticles. The composite adsorbents show excellent lubrication oil absorption capacity with rapid kinetics. Banana stem based activated carbon and composite materials is compared with commercial activated carbon and its magnetic composite to remove oil from aqueous environment. The banana stem based activated carbon was capable to adsorb oil up to 2.99 times of its weight and composite from commercial activated carbon could adsorb 5 times of its weight within 30 min and interestingly both composite could be removed from water body by applying external permanent magnet. The kinetic data were best fitted to the pseudo second order model and thermodynamic parameter was also estimated.