Biogenic Synthesis Of Magnetite (Fe3o4) Nanoparticles Using Leaf Extract Of Thymus Schimperi And Application For Removal Of Chromium And Mercury Ions From Aqueous Solution

Abstract

The progress of green chemistry in the synthesis of nanoparticles using plants has attracted a great attention due to its low cost and non-toxic and environment-friendly nature. The present study focuses on the biogenic synthesis of magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles from ferric and ferrous chloride precursor using Thymus schimperi leaf extract and its application for removal of Cr(VI) and Hg(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by advanced techniques like Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) which was performed to study the thermal stability showing the results were stable above 4500C; X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy revealing desired phase formation and crystal structure having pure cubic face centered phase with particle size in the range of 20-30nm; Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) which has been used to study the interaction between the capping agents and the synthesized Fe3O4 nanoparticles; SEM-EDX analysis revealed information about the sample including external morphology, chemical composition and crystalline structure and orientation of materials making up the sample and UV-Vis characterization technique provided information about the optical properties and band gap energy of the synthesized NPs. Various factors affecting the removal efficiency such as metal ions initial concentrations, pH, contact time and adsorbent dosage were also studied. The adsorption kinetics followed the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were found to be the predominant for both Cr(VI) and Hg(II) ions removal.