Preparation of novel cobalt ferrite coated-porous carbon composite by simple chemical co-precipitation method and their mechanistic performance

Abstract The consumption of agricultural wastes as environmentally friendly and endorses green chemistry. The potential use of agricultural waste sources with additional treatment for the removal of anionic pollutants from water was examined. Herein, the removal performance of a stable inorganic-organic hybrid composite of porous carbon (Porous carbon derived from papaya seeds) was fabricated through one-pot synthesis and employed for the removal of phosphate and nitrate from water. The as-prepared hybrid composite properties were examined using FTIR, XRD, SEM, VSM, TGA-DSC, BET and EDAX with mapping analysis. The various parameters for the removal of phosphate and nitrate from water using cobalt ferrite coated-porous carbon composite (CoFe2O4@PC) were optimized. The maximum adsorption capacity is 92.34 for phosphate and 78.98 mg/g for nitrate at 303 K. Freundlich adsorption isotherm model is found to be superior fir and heterogeneous surface interaction of phosphate and nitrate ions onto the CoFe2O4@PC composite. The pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion kinetic model describes the removal mechanism and rate-determining steps. Thermodynamic studies recommend that the adsorption process to be endothermic and spontaneous nature. The prepared CoFe2O4@PC composite displayed good removal capacity and was effectively utilized for the removal of phosphate and nitrate ions in real water sample. In addition, this study provides useful insights into the removal of phosphate and nitrate by magnetic separable CoFe2O4@PC composite in water/wastewater.