Enormous adsorption of methyl blue onto NixMgyCu(1-x-y)Fe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles synthesized by a rapid combustion method.

INTRODUCTION

Dye wastewater poses serious threats to human health and ecosystem stability worldwide. Therefore, developing effective treatment strategies has become increasingly important.

METHODS

In this work, a rapid combustion approach was employed to fabricate NixMgyCu(1-x-y)Fe2O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) with high structural homogeneity, and characterized by several methods such as XRD, TEM, VSM, XPS, BET, and FTIR to identify for attaining a reduced particle size, and Ni0.1Mg0.8Cu0.1Fe2O4 MNPs with the average particle size of 17.4 nm and the saturation magnetization of 4.73 emu/g were employed due to their enhanced magnetic properties calcined at 400 °C for 2 h with ethanol of 25 mL.

RESULTS

Under initial methyl blue (MB) concentrations ranging from 800 to 1,100 mg/L, the adsorption kinetics were well described by the pseudo-second-order model, indicating that chemisorption was the dominant rate-limiting mechanism. Among the evaluated isotherm models, the Freundlich equation exhibited the best correlation with experimental data (R2 = 0.9893), implying a heterogeneous surface adsorption mechanism involving multiple molecular layers. Furthermore, after five consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles, the nanoparticles retained approximately 90.7% of their initial adsorption capacity, demonstrating the robust reusability and structural stability.

DISCUSSION: Ni0.1Mg0.8Cu0.1Fe2O4 MNPs revealed excellent stability, enormous adsorption capacity and rate of MB, and commendable recycle, which highlighted the potential of Ni0.1Mg0.8Cu0.1Fe2O4 MNPs as a candidate for wastewater treatment.