Eco-friendly elimination of organic pollutants from water using graphene oxide assimilated magnetic nanoparticles adsorbent

[Display omitted] •Fe3O4/GO composite was synthesized by simple co-precipitation method for efficient adsorption of 4-nitrotoluene.•The Fe3O4/GO composite was characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, EDX, VSM and classical techniques.•The adsorption results were best fitted to Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model.•The thermodynamic parameters suggested the adsorption reaction were favourable, spontaneous and exothermic in nature.•The Fe3O4/GO composite showed good desorption and recyclability due to its high magnetic nature. One of the noticeable problem of the environment is deterioration of drinking water quality because of the discharge of industrial wastewater comprising toxic organic molecules. Herein, an eco-friendly graphene oxide assimilated Fe3O4 was synthesized by co-precipitation method for efficient adsorption of 4-nitrotoluene from water. The as-synthesized Fe3O4/GO composite was characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM, VSM, EDX and few classical techniques. Characterization results revealed the successful formation of Fe3O4/GO composite. The adsorption results obtained over Fe3O4/GO composite were best fitted to Freundlich isotherm model (R2 = 0.991) and pseudo-second-order kinetic model (R2 = 0.990). The thermodynamic parameters suggested the adsorption reaction were favourable, spontaneous and exothermic. Besides, the composite also showed good desorption and recyclability due to its high stable magnetic nature. Moreover, the composite retained equivalent % adsorption capability (>95.7%) even after several consecutive cycles, verifying its prospective applicability for drinking water cleansing at industrial and domestic level.