Adsorption of Congo red dye by magnetic nanoparticles of ferrite cobalt and ferrite zinc coated with polyaniline

In this work, two magnetic nanocomposites of zinc ferrite coated with polyaniline (PA/ZnFe2O4) and cobalt ferrite coated with polyaniline (PA/CoFe2O4) were synthesized by sol-gel method and in situ polymerization. These nanocomposites were characterized by various identification techniques including SEM, FT-IR, XRD and EDX. These nanocomposites were used to remove Congo red. The effect of polyaniline presence was also investigated and the results showed that the presence of polyaniline polymer coating on the surface of nanoparticles had a significant effect on the process of adsorption of Congo red. The prepared nanocomposites could omitted the Congo red in eques solution of 50 ppm, at mild reaction condition at 180 min in pH=7 by the using of 15 mg absorbents up to 90 and 97%, respectively. Also, the synthesized nanocomposites were used to remove the Congo red from real samples including well water and dyeing wastewater. The results have been shown that the complex matrix has no any effect on nanocomposites efficacy and both nanocomposites were reusable for 4 times. Therefore, synthesized nanocomposites due to their ease of synthesis, and abundance and cheapness of raw materials are good candidates for removal of congo red in real samples and complex matrix on industrial and semi-industrial scales.