Mussel-inspired synthesis of amino acid modified magnetic nanoparticles for high-efficiency dye adsorption

The design of absorbents that can handle poisonous dyes in wastewaters is of great importance. Herein, we synthesize amino acid modified magnetic nanoparticles via a polydopamine (PDA) assisting strategy. By this strategy, a high adsorption of methylene blue reaches 950 mg g⁻¹, which is superior to most reported dyes absorbents. Furthermore, this synthetic route is very simple and the absorbents can be fast separated from waste water by virtue of their strong super-paramagnetism. (paper)