A nanocomposite consisting of silica-coated magnetite and phenyl-functionalized graphene oxide for extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon from aqueous matrices

In this study,graphene oxide was covalently immobilized on silica-coated magnetite and then modified with 2-phenylethylamine to give a nanocomposite of type Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA that can be applied to the magnetic solid-phase extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons（PAHs） from water samples.The resulting microspheres（Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA） were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）,scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,CHNS elemental analysis,and vibrating sample magnetometry（VSM） techniques.The adsorbent possesses the magnetic properties of Fe3O4 nanoparticles that allow them easily to be separated by an external magnetic field.They also have the high specific surface area of graphene oxide which improves adsorption capacity.Desorption conditions,extraction time,amount of adsorbent,salt concentration,and pH were investigated and optimized.Following desorption,the PAHs were quantified by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection（GC-FID）.The limits of detection（at an S/N ratio of 3） were achieved from 0.005 to0.1 μg/L with regression coefficients（R2） higher than 0.9954.The relative standard deviations（RSDs） were below 5.8%（intraday） and 6.2%（inter-day）,respectively.The method was successfully applied to the analysis of PAHs in environmental water samples where it showed recoveries in the range between 71.7%and 106.7%（with RSDs of 1.6%to 8.4%,for n = 3）.The results indicated that the Fe3O4@SiO2@GO-PEA microspheres had a great promise to extraction of PAHs from different water samples.

A facile and green synthetic approach toward fabrication of starch-stabilized magnetite nanoparticles

A facile and green synthetic approach for fabrication of starch-stabilized magnetite nanoparticles was implemented at moderate temperature. This synthesis involved the use of iron salts, potato starch,sodium hydroxide and deionized water as iron precursors, stabilizer, reducing agent and solvent respectively. The nanoparticles（NPs） were characterized by UV-vis, PXRD, HR-TEM, FESEM, EDX, VSM and FT-IR spectroscopy. The ultrasonic assisted co-precipitation technique provides well formation of highly distributed starch/Fe3O4-NPs. Based on UV–vis analysis, the sample showed the characteristic of surface plasmon resonance in the presence of Fe3O4-NPs. The PXRD pattern depicted the characteristic of the cubic lattice structure of Fe3O4-NPs. HR-TEM analysis showed the good dispersion of NPs with a mean diameter and standard deviation of 10.68 4.207 nm. The d spacing measured from the lattice images were found to be around 0.30 nm and 0.52 nm attributed to the Fe3O4 and starch, respectively. FESEM analysis confirmed the formation of spherical starch/Fe3O4-NPs with the emission of elements of C, O and Fe by EDX analysis. The magnetic properties illustrated by VSM analysis indicated that the as synthesized sample has a saturation magnetization and coercivity of 5.30 emu/g and 22.898 G respectively.Additionally, the FTIR analysis confirmed the binding of starch with Fe3O4-NPs. This method was cost effective, facile and eco-friendly alternative for preparation of NPs.