Mesoporous Carbon Modified with Iron Oxide Based Magnetic Nanomaterials for Removal of Malachite Green Dye From Aqueous Solution

Mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) modified with Fe3O4 nanoparticles has been successfully synthesized and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption desorption, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The results depict that the synthesized Fe-CMK-3 preserved the ordered mesoporous structure of CMK-3, and magnetic species were dispersed inside channels of CMK-3 as nanoparticles with the diameter of around 15 nm. When used as adsorbents, Fe-CMK-3 and CMK-3 exhibit excellent performance for removing Malachite Green dye from aqueous solutions. Effects of contact time, pH, initial dye and salt concentrations on dye removal efficiency were investigated. Due to the facility of the separation process with an external magnetic field, Fe- CMK-3 is suggested as a novel adsorbent for the removal of MG dye from aqueous solutions.