Green synthesis of iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles for the adsorption of lead(II) from aqueous medium

In this work, iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄) have been synthesized using pomegranate peel extract, via green synthesis route, to remove heavy metal lead(II) from aqueous medium. Iron powder has been used as precursor agent and pomegranate peel extract has been used as reducing agent. The reaction process, i.e. co-precipitation, is simple, eco-friendly and of low cost. Synthesized adsorbent i.e. nanoparticles, were first characterized by XRD to understand the crystalline structure and phase. Also, SEM analysis was carried out to know the surface morphology of the adsorbent a nd the surface area of the nanoparticles were estimated using BET surface area analyzer. The average surface area of the nanoparticles was 173.38 m²/g. Average particle size was 35 nm as found in DLS analysis. The adsorption of Pb 2+ on the surface of nano ad- sorbent followed pseudo-second order reaction model and Langmuir isotherm model. The maximum adsorption capacity of nano adsorbent was 142.999 mg/g. Maximum removal efficiency was observed to be 97.95% at pH 6. (author)