Synthesis of biomass trans-anethole based magnetic hollow polymer particles and their applications as renewable adsorbent

This article reports a novel type of biobased magnetic hollow particles (BMHPs) derived from a widely available biophenylpropene trans-anethole (ANE). To prepare BMHPs, ANE and maleic anhydride (MAH) underwent copolymerization in the presence of particulate templates to form core/shell particles. Sequential removing the cores and hydrolyzing processes provide biobased hydrolyzed hollow particles (BHHPs), which were then grafted with amino-modified Fe3O4 NPs. The prepared BMHPs were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, VSM, EDS and FT-IR techniques and further used as bioadsorbent to remove pollutants from wastewater. The maximum adsorption capacity towards Cr3+, Pb2+ and Rhodamine B is up to 44.5, 48.8 and 50.4 mg/g, respectively. Kinetic and isothermal studies show that the adsorption is best fitted with pseudo-second order model and Langmuir isothermal adsorption. BMHPs demonstrated remarkable magneticity and can be easily separated by external magnet. Recycling use study showed that the dye-adsorbed BMHPs can be easily restored in HCl/THF mixed solution. The advantages of the new adsorbents, namely, derivative from bio-resource, high adsorption capacity, much ease in separation and regeneration recyclability, render them with promising potentials in wastewater treatment.