Composite nanofibers prepared from metallic iron nanoparticles and polyaniline: high performance for water treatment applications

Madhumita Bhaumik; Hyoung J Choi; Rob I McCrindle; Arjun Maity

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2014.03.031

Composite nanofibers prepared from metallic iron nanoparticles and polyaniline: high performance for water treatment applications

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2014 Jul 1:425:75-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.03.031. Epub 2014 Mar 20.

Authors

Madhumita Bhaumik¹, Hyoung J Choi², Rob I McCrindle³, Arjun Maity⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria, South Africa. Electronic address: bhaumikm@tut.ac.za.
² Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, South Korea.
³ Department of Chemistry, Tshwane University of Technology, Private Bag X680, Pretoria, South Africa. Electronic address: McCrindleRI@tut.ac.za.
⁴ Smart Polymers Group, Polymers and Composites, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa; Department of Civil and Chemical Engineering, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa. Electronic address: amaity@csir.co.za.

PMID: 24776666
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.03.031

Abstract

Presented here is a simple preparation of metallic iron nanoparticles, supported on polyaniline nanofibers at room temperature. The preparation is based on polymerization of interconnected nanofibers by rapid mixing of the aniline monomer with Fe(III) chloride as the oxidant, followed by reductive deposition of Fe(0) nanoparticles, using the polymerization by-products as the Fe precursor. The morphology and other physico-chemical properties of the resulting composite were characterized by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and vibrating-sample magnetometry. The composite fibers were 80-150 nm in diameter and exhibited the expected ferromagnetic behavior. The composite rapidly and efficiently removed As(V), Cr(VI), and also Congo red dye, from aqueous solutions suggesting their usefulness for removal of toxic materials from wastewater. The composite fibers have high capacity for toxin removal: 42.37 mg/g of As(V), 434.78 mg/g of Cr(VI), and 243.9 mg/g of Congo red. The fibers are easily recovered from fluids by exploiting their ferromagnetic properties.

Keywords: Adsorption; Arsenic(V); Chromium(VI); Composites; Congo red; Isotherm; Kinetics; Nanofibers; Polyaniline.