A novel cyanopropylsilane-functionalized titanium oxide magnetic nanoparticle for the adsorption of nickel and lead ions from industrial wastewater: Equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies

A novel magnetic nanoparticles and cyano containing organic-inorganic mesoporous silica framework (Fe3O4@TiO2-CN) was introduced as a highly efficient sorbent for the expeditious simple removal of nickel(II) and lead(II) metal ions from wastewater. Adsorbent was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDX). The removal experiment was conducted in batch wise approach and different effective parameters such as pH, sorbent dosage, contact time and the initial concentration of the metal ions were optimized. The adsorption equilibrium was reached in 60 min for both lead and nickel ions pointing out the rapid kinetic of the adsorption process with a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The adsorption nature and the isotherm data were best fitted with the Langmuir monolayer adsorption isotherm displaying a high maximum adsorption capacity of 92.6 and 75.76 mg/L for lead and nickel, respectively. Lastly, the presented sorbent proved its superior applicability and performance for the metal ions removal in aqueous media with advantages such as simple synthesis, easy isolation, and a high regeneration potential of 7 cycles without remarkable loss in its performance. This cyano-grafted silica improves the adsorption efficiency of metal ions and the overall adsorption capacity due to its complexation activity.