(13b) Stabilized Metallic Nanoparticles Fabrication for Capturing Heavy Metal Ions From Polluted Water

Magnetic carbon coated iron nanoparticles with core-shell structure have been fabricated at a mild temperature by an environmentally benign method. The economic sodium chloride has been found to effectively serve as a solid spacer to disperse the iron precursor, to prevent the nanoparticles from agglomeration and to control the particle size. Higher ratios of sodium chloride to iron nitrate result in smaller nanoparticles with the iron core size of 15 nm. The structure, microspheres and magnetic properties are characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and magnetic measurements. The TEM observations show that the iron nanoparticles are coated with a carbon shell. It is found that functionlization group could be formed on the surface of nanoparticles followed by a post-treatment method. The nanoparticles exhibit ferromagnetic behavior with a saturated magnetization of Ms=218 emu/g and coercivity of Hc= 62 Oe. The hybrid nanoparticles can effectively remove 97.2 wt% Cr(VI) in waste water via the physical adsorption method, while maintain stable and no agglomeration. The presence of magnetic core renders the capturing of heavy metal ions more convenient and suitable for treating solutions with lower concentrations.