Synthesis of Iron on Carbon Foam for Use in the Removal of Phenol from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

The potential use of magnetic nanopowder for phenol adsorption mobilised on natural grain carbon foam from an aqueous solution was studied. Phenolic compounds are priority pollutants with high toxicity even at low concentrations. A magnetic nanopowder was synthesised by dissolving an iron sponge in nitric acid to produce iron nitrate, which was added to a natural grain mixture with flour as the main ingredient. The synthesised carbon foam was investigated for the effects of initial concentration, time, and TEM (transmission electron microscopy) characterisation. The phenol adsorption increased as the iron content of the carbon foam and the initial concentration increased. A kinetic study showed that the phenol adsorption data adequately covered all the carbon foam samples tested using an equation corresponding to a pseudo-first order chemical reaction. The Freundlich, Langmuir, and Temkin equations were tested for modelling the adsorption isotherms at equilibrium, and it was concluded that the Temkin model fit the experimental data adequately. Due to its exceptional physical and chemical properties, carbon magnetic nanopowder is regarded as an outstanding pollutant absorber in environmental investigations. R2 values derived from the pseudo-first-order model exceed 0.99. R2 > 0.94 indicates that the Freundlich isotherm provides the best fit to the equilibrium data.