Preparation of chitosan based magnetic nanocomposite for tetracycline adsorption: Kinetic and thermodynamic studies

In the present study, the magnetic nanocomposite is fabricated using chitosan, thiobarbituric acid, malondialdehyde and Fe3O4 nanoparticles (CTM@Fe3O4). The fabricated nanocomposite (CTM@Fe3O4) is characterized using FTIR, TGA, BET, XRD, Raman, XPS, FESEM, and HRTEM techniques. The results of BET analysis confirmed that the nanocomposite has a mesoporous structure with high surface area of 376 m2 g−1 and high pore volume 0.3828 cm3 g−1. The adsorption of tetracycline (TC) onto CTM@Fe3O4 adsorbent is carried out using batch technique by changing several factors such as pH, concentration, contact time, and temperature. Langmuir and pseudo-second-order nonlinear models were found to be the best-fit models to predict isotherms and kinetics of adsorption, respectively. The highest adsorption capacity of 215.31mg/g was achieved at the optimum conditions of 0.05g adsorbent dosage, 60mg/L TC concentration. Overall, results demonstrated that CTM@Fe3O4 nanocomposite was an excellent adsorbent material with superparamagnetic properties, which allowed the separation as well as recovery of the adsorbent from aqueous solution using external magnet for effective industrial applications. [Display omitted] •Mesoporous nanocomposite of chitosan/thiobarbituric acid/malondialdehyde-Fe3O4 has been prepared.•CTM@Fe3O4 nanocomposites show super-paramagnetic features.•The fabricated nanocomposites show high surface area of 376 m2 g−1 and high pore volume 0.3828 cm3 g−1.•The adsorption kinetics and isotherms can be well-defined by pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm model.