Study of organic pollutant removal capacity for magnetite@ graphene oxide nanocomposites

In the present work, magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles decorated graphene oxide (GO) sheets were synthesized using the chemical method. Graphene based nanocomposites show an effective adsorbent property, and therefore can be used as an organic pollutant remover from the aqueous medium. The X-ray diffraction analysis was done to investigate the crystallinity and particle size of Fe3O4 decorated GO sheets and the particle size was found to be 28 nm. Surface morphology of Fe3O4@GO nanocomposites was studied using transmission electron microscopy and the obtained inter planer spacing in Fe3O4@GO nanocomposites was 0.246 nm. For the applications point of view, these nanocomposites have been used for the removal of Rhodamine 6G dye molecules from the aqueous medium. The removal capacity was found to increase as the concentration of the nano composite increases. In Fe3O4@GO nanocomposites the GO sheets provide large surface area due to different functional groups like epoxide (C-O-C), carboxylic acid (-COOH), hydroxyl (-OH) to adsorb dye molecules. This study provides a new platform for the use of Fe3O4@GO nanocomposites in a water clean-up process.