Iodine removal efficiently from wastewater by magnetic Fe3O4 incorporated within activated porous cellulose

Capturing of iodine by using synthesized magnetic iron [email protected] porous cellulose (Fe3O4@APC) was studied herein. The APC was firstly obtained via extraction from the sugar beet pulp. The magnetic composite was then synthesized by addition of iron oxide to the APC with different concentrations (10 % & 20 %). Iron oxide particles were densely covered the micro-porous surface of cellulose. The obtained magnetic composites were employed in iodine adsorption. The adsorption of iodine onto the magnetic composites were followed the pseudo-second order in kinetic and Langmuir profile in isotherm. Langmuir adsorption capacities (Qmax) of iodine were significantly grown from 349.2 mg/g for APC to 553.2 mg/g for Fe3O4(10 %)@APC composite and 844.6 mg/g for Fe3O4(20 %)@APC composite. The maximum adsorption capacity of iodine onto APC was enhanced by 2.4 times after incorporation of 20 % of iron oxide. After six recovering cycles, the iodine adsorption capacity onto composites was only diminished by 7.0–16.3 %. After iodine adsorption, the magnetic Fe3O4@APC composite can be easily removed from the medium by magnet which helped in its wide scale applicability.