Abstract
•Nanocomposite of graphene oxide was prepared with Fe3O4 via ultrasonic assisted co-precipitation technique.•Nanocomposite was characterized by FTIR, XRD and EDX/SEM techniques GO-Fe3 O4 NCs were employed for the adsorptive removal of nitrate (NO₃¯) and phosphate (PO43¯) ions•At optimum conditions of process variables, the removal of NO₃¯ and PO43¯ ions were 89 and 93 (%), respectively.•The real wastewater was treated at optimum conditions and NO₃¯ and PO43¯ removal was promising
In view of auspicious adsorption efficiency of nanocomposites (NCs), nanocomposites of graphene oxide (GO) were prepared with Fe3O4 by ultrasonic-assisted co-precipitation procedure and characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray (EDX). The GO-Fe3O4 NCs were employed for adsorptive elimination of nitrate (NO3¯) and phosphate (PO43¯) ions from aqueous medium as a function of pH (1-10), GO-Fe3O4 NCs dose (0.05-0.1 g), contact time (0-1444 min) and ions concentration (10-100 mg L-1). Among kinetic and isotherms models, NO3¯ and PO43¯ ions removal followed the pseudo second order and Freundlich isotherm models. The maximum elimination capacity was achived up to 89 and 93 (%) for NO3¯ and PO43¯ ions, respectively at optimum operating conditions viz. pH 2, ions inital concentration 100 mg L-1, NCs dose 0.5 g and contact time 120 min. For the optimization of process variables response surface methodology (RSM) was emplyed. The results revealed that GO-Fe3O4 NCs have promising adsorption capacity for NO3¯ and PO43¯ ions and can be employed for the removal of NO3¯ and PO43¯ ions from effluents.