REMOVAL OF As(III) FROM WATER USING A NOVEL ORANGE PEEL BIOPOLYMER BASED MAGNETIC NANOCOMPOSITES

Abstract

Arsenic pollution in groundwater is of high concern due to its impact to environment and human health. Numerous methods have been used to treat arsenic pollution. In this work, a practical application of biopolymer-based magnetic nanocomposites as a novel adsorbent for the arsenic pollutant was demonstrated. Magnetic nanocomposites were produced by incorporating cobalt superparamagnetic (CoFe₂O₄) nanoparticles into the biopolymer matrix which was extracted from orange peel. In which, the superparamagnetic nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation approach and the nanocomposites formation was carried out with the support of magnetic agitation. Various characterizations including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) were carried out to investigate the property of the obtained biopolymer magnetic nanocomposites. The materials was used as adsorbent, then applied to remove arsenic trioxide in the solution. The result indicated that 99.2% of arsenic trioxide (1.0 g/L feed concentration, 1.0 g/L dose of the material) could be removed by the adsorbent. In addition, the nanocomposites after treatment could be facilely separated from the aqueous mixture by simple magnetic decantation due to its superparamagnetism, making it easy to completely isolate them from water and exhibiting good reusability.