Experimental study of using TBP-coated magnetite nanoparticles Fe3O4@PEG@TBP as a new adsorbent of Zr (IV) ions from aqueous synthetic solutions

In this study, the removal of Zr (IV) from aqueous solutions was investigated using magnetic Fe3O4@PEG@TBP nanoparticles as a new adsorbent. Experiments were conducted to study the effects of initial pH, amount of adsorbent, shaking time, and initial Zr (IV) concentrations on zirconium sorption efficiency. The sorption of zirconium on Fe3O4@PEG@TBP nanoparticles was pH-dependent, and the optimal pH was 6.0. In kinetics studies, the sorption equilibrium was reached within 10 min, and the experimental data were well fitted by the pseudo-second-order model, and the equilibrium sorption capacities calculated by the model were almost the same as those determined by experiments. The maximum zirconium sorption capacity onto magnetic nanoparticles was estimated to be about 50 mg/g at 25 °C. Sodium acetate, sodium nitrate, sodium fluoride, and ammonium oxalate were used as desorbing agents. The highest values of zirconium desorption (100 %) was achieved using 0.5 M sodium fluoride as the desorbing agent. The present study suggested that this method is simple, fast, and highly efficient for zirconium removal from aqueous solutions by using magnetic nanoparticles.