Removal of Anthracene from Aqueous Solutions Using Modified Magnetic Fe3O4 Nanoparticles by Dendrimer Polymer Chains and 4-Aminophenol Ligandide

Anthracene is an organic compound and environmentally resistant pollutant that causes severe damage to human health due to toxic and carcinogenic properties. The present study aimed to investigate the efficiency of magnetic dendrimer nano-adsorbent for the removal of anthracene from aqueous solutions.

In this study, the synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were modified by dendrimer polymer chains and 4-aminophenol ligand. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy were conducted to examine the nano-absorbent properties. Different operational parameters in the adsorption process in batch and laboratory conditions were also studied, and the adsorbent reusability was correspondingly examined in this study. The residual concentration of anthracene in aqueous solution was determined and reported by a spectrophotometer.

Optimization results showed that the maximum adsorbent capacity under optimum conditions (pH=7, 20 mg/L anthracene concentration, 0.5 g/L adsorbent dosage, and 30 min contact time) was equal to 83 mg/g. The experimental data fitted with different isotherm models showed that the equilibrium data were well described by the Langmuir model. In this study, the adsorption process overlapped more with the pseudo-second-order kinetics model.

The obtained results indicated that the synthesized nanostructured adsorbent has a high adsorption capacity with high recovery and is efficient enough to remove anthracene from aqueous solutions.