Rapid degradation of dyes in water by magnetic Fe^0/Fe_3O_4/graphene composites

Magnetic Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene has been successfully synthesized by a one-step reduction method and investigated in rapid degradation of dyes in this work. The material was characterized by N2 sorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FT-IR）, vibrating-sample magnetometer（VSM） measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）. The results indicated that Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene had a layered structure with Fe crystals highly dispersed in the interlayers of graphene, which could enhance the mass transfer process between Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene and pollutants. Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene exhibited ferromagnetism and could be easily separated and re-dispersed for reuse in water. Typical dyes, such as Methyl Orange, Methylene Blue and Crystal Violet, could be decolorized by Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene rapidly. After 20 min, the decolorization efficiencies of methyl orange, methylene blue and crystal violet were 94.78%, 91.60% and 89.07%, respectively. The reaction mechanism of Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene with dyes mainly included adsorption and enhanced reduction by the composite. Thus, Fe^0/Fe3O4/graphene prepared by the one-step reduction method has excellent performance in removal of dyes in water.

Co-adsorption of gaseous benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene,m-xylene(BTEX) and SO_2 on recyclable Fe_3O_4 nanoparticles at 0–101% relative humidities

We herein used Fe3O4 nanoparticles（NPs） as an adsorption interface for the concurrent removal of gaseous benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and m-xylene（BTEX） and sulfur dioxide（SO2）, at different relative humidities（RH）. X-ray diffraction, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, and transmission electron microscopy were deployed for nanoparticle surface characterization.Mono-dispersed Fe3O4（Fe2O3·Fe O） NPs synthesized with oleic acid（OA） as surfactant, and uncoated poly-dispersed Fe3O4 NPs demonstrated comparable removal efficiencies.Adsorption experiments of BTEX on NPs were measured using gas chromatography equipped with flame ionization detection, which indicated high removal efficiencies（up to（95 ± 2）%） under dry conditions. The humidity effect and competitive adsorption were investigated using toluene as a model compound. It was observed that the removal efficiencies decreased as a function of the increase in RH, yet, under our experimental conditions, we observed（40 ± 4）% toluene removal at supersaturation for Fe3O4 NPs, and toluene removal of（83 ± 4）% to（59 ± 6）%, for OA-Fe3O4 NPs. In the presence of SO2, the toluene uptake was reduced under dry conditions to（89 ± 2）% and（75 ± 1）% for the uncoated and coated NPs, respectively, depicting competitive adsorption. At RH 〉 100%,competitive adsorption reduced the removal efficiency to（27 ± 1）% for uncoated NPs whereas OA-Fe3O4 NPs exhibited moderate efficiency loss of（55 ± 2）% at supersaturation.Results point to heterogeneous water coverage on the NP surface. The magnetic property of magnetite facilitated the recovery of both types of NPs, without the loss in efficiency when recycled and reused.