Synthesis and optimization of reaction variables in the preparation of pine-magnetite composite for removal of methylene blue dye

Purity and quality of water is a basic concern to mankind. The environment is deteriorating daily due to industrial pollution. Dyes discharged together with industrial textile wastewaters are main organic pollutants because they are highly visible and undesirable even at low concentrations in water. Natural biomaterials have been applied previously as adsorbents for dyes from aqueous solution, but their application has been limited by low adsorption capacity. In this study, pine cone biomass, a naturally occurring agricultural waste was treated with 0.15 M NaOH solution to remove unwanted plant extracts and iron oxide magnetic particles which was coated on the pine surface. The main focus of the study was to prepare and optimize the working conditions for the pine magnetite composite. The bionanocomposite material was synthesized by a complete co-precipitation method of Fe 2+ : Fe 3+ (1:2) under alkaline conditions in an inert environment followed by addition of the biomass. The variables used for the experiments were volume of NH 4 OH varied from 5 to 40 ml, reaction temperature varied from 40 to 100 °C, effect of time varied from 15 to 60 min and mass from 1.0 to 3.5 g. Incorporation of magnetite nanoparticles onto the surface of the biomass was confirmed by FTIR, TGA and XRD. TEM showed particles size ranging from 8.23–11.73 nm. XRF showed the iron oxide content ranging from 57 to 74%.