Adsorption Performances and Electrochemical Properties of Methyl Blue onto CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles

Abstract

Magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were successfully manufactured through the process of nitrate combustion using anhydrous ethanol as fuel, they together with their intermediate were characterized by thermo gravimetric (TG) analysis, selected area electron diffraction (SAED), transmission electron microscope (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). These results indicated a phenomenon that the magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles could be formed at 400 °C, the average grain size, the specific magnetization, and the specific surface area of magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles fabricated at 400 °C for 2 h with 30 mL anhydrous ethanol were corresponding 20 nm, 78.0 Am2/kg and 83.2 m2/kg. Magnetic CoFe2O4 nanoparticles were in application to adsorb methyl blue (MB) of wastewater, and their adsorption performances and electrochemical properties were investigated, the adsorption process data well agreed with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model in concentration ranging from 100 mg/L to 400 mg/L of MB. Compared with Freundlich model, Langmuir model (correlation coefficient R2 = 0.9976) could evaluate the adsorption equilibrium state of MB onto CoFe2O4 nanoparticles at indoor temperature, so the monomolecular layer adsorption mechanism was demonstrated to be the mechanism of the MB molecules' adsorption onto CoFe2O4 nanoparticles.