Nano Fe3O4 Activated Carbon Composites to remove ions Ni(II)and Co(II) from aqueous solutions

Water pollution with heavy metals is a serious environmental problem. The use of heavy metals has increased in recent decades, resulting in the influx of heavy metals into natural water sources. The danger of these toxic metals results from their negative effects on the general health of humans and the surrounding ecosystem. It has been found that the use of some of these removal techniques is limited because they require high cost or their efficiency is not good in removing heavy metals, meaning that they do not provide a solution to environmental problems, but it has been proven that adsorption is one of the best ways to remove heavy metals from water, in this study, a composite material of magnetic iron oxide loaded on activated carbon (AC@Fe3O4) was used with different mixing ratios to remove two heavy metals, nickel and cobalt. Some tests were conducted on the manufactured composite using techniques such as atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), as well as using (BET) surface area analysis and thermo gravimetric analysis technology (TGA). The Ni2+ removal percentage was 83%, which is higher than the removal of Co2+ under optimal conditions.