Synthesis and application of nanocomposite Fe3O4@SiO2@CTAB–SiO2 as a novel adsorbent for removal of cyclophosphamide from water samples

We present a way of synthesizing nanocomposite Fe3O4@SiO2@CTAB–SiO2 by employing simple sol–gel technique with selective etching for extreme selectivity adsorption of cyclophosphamide (CP). The transmission electron microscopy (TEM); scanning electron microscopy (SEM); X-ray diffraction (XRD); Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR); vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM); pHPZC; and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) techniques were used for nanocomposite characterization. These nanoparticles have an SBET of 157.8 m2 g−1 and a high saturation magnetization of 67.5 emu g−1. First, the adsorption system was examined as a function of contact time under various initial CP contents, ionic strength, initial solution pH, adsorbent dose and temperature in batch test. The optimum dose, pH and contact time were obtained to be 0.01 g, 7.0 and 30 min, respectively. Ultimately, experimental isotherm and kinetics data of adsorption of CP onto nanocomposite Fe3O4@SiO2@CTAB–SiO2 were fitted to classical models. Additionally, it was found that the maximum adsorption process capacity of CP on adsorbent was 342.8 mg g−1.