Calcium/magnesium ferrites-incorporated MXene for As(III) removal from aqueous solution

Arsenic ranks first among the carcinogenic 1 group of heavy metals. Various techniques have been employed to remove the contaminants from aqueous media, with adsorption being the most suitable. For this purpose, the emerging material, MXene and its functionalized forms with calcium ferrites and magnesium ferrites have been used. The hydrothermal method was adopted for the synthetic purposes. For structure, morphology, magnetic behavior, surface area and functional group determination, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer, Barrett–Joyner–Halenda, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were employed. For adsorption studies, batch tests were conducted with the effects of pH, contact time, temperature, and concentration. The pseudo-second-order kinetics (R2 ≈ 0.98), along with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms (R2 ≈ 0.98) were found well fitted to the experimental data. Among the synthesized adsorbents, MXene, MXene functionalized with calcium ferrite, and MXene functionalized with magnesium ferrite demonstrated monolayer adsorption capacities of 1829, 4399, and 4631 µg/g, respectively. Ultimately, the reusability of materials was investigated through desorption analyses.