Abstract
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•A novel sorbent namely (D-Fe3O4-NPS) was successfully achieved.•Malachite green was efficiently detached from aqueous medium by D-Fe3O4-NPS.•Effect of time, temperature, mass, and pH on the adsorption process was studied.•A mechanism of the adsorption process was suggested.
Dates' stones, a natural, abundant biowaste in Saudi Arabia, was hybridized with magnetite nanoparticles to produce hybrid-based magnetite dates' stones nanoparticles (D-Fe3O4-NPS). The synthesized sorbent was utilized for remediation of dye pollutants. A set oftechniques were used to characterize D-Fe3O4-NPS. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed masses of spherical magnetite nanoparticles dispersed uniformly among the dates' stones bed. The average diameter of the nanoparticles was found to be 8 nm, while BET surface area was 44.174 m2/g. The adsorption capability of the synthesized D-Fe3O4-NPS towards the malachite green (MG) dye was evaluated via optimization factors, isotherm, and kinetics studies. The optimization factors investigated included pH, temperature, contact time, and sorbent mass. It was found that the extent of MG adsorption by D-Fe3O4-NPS increased with initial dye concentration, contact time, the dosage of the sorbent, and pH of solution while temperature effect was not pronounced. Overall, the sorption kinetics of MG was best described by the pseudo-second-order model. Finally, a mechanism for the adsorption behavior of (MG) was suggested to obtain a deeper understanding of the sorption procedure. The results showed that D-Fe3O4-NPS could be very promising as a low-cost sorbent, which easily hooks MG from an aqueous environment.