Fabrication of magnetite-functionalized-graphene oxide and hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide nanocomposite for efficient nanosorption of sunset yellow

Highlights: • A fast and efficient extraction of Sunset yellow (SY) from different samples. • Functionalization of magnetite nanoparticles with graphene oxide and CTAB. • Optimization of experimental parameters on the efficiency and percentage removal of SY. • Validation and applicability of the proposed system using different samples. - Abstract: A novel magnetic nanocomposite based on magnetite nanoparticles-functionalized-graphene oxide and hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide has been synthesized (MAGO-CTAB) by a facile route for efficient, fast and sensitive binding with Sunset Yellow (SY). The MAGO-CTAB (27 ± 3 nm) has been successfully characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetization techniques. The influences of different experimental parameters on the % SY removal efficiency were fully investigated. The adsorption rates of SY by MAGO-CTAB were conducted by fitting the experimental data to four kinetic models. Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D–R) adsorption isotherms were applied to study SY removal. The adsorption-desorption stability performance of the novel magnetic nanosorbent was evaluated and confirmed after 5 cycles. The designed MAGO-CTAB was successfully utilized for removal of SY from different food and soft drink samples with excellent recoveries values (98–103%).