A Green Magnetite-Coated Waste Biomass for Simultaneous Removal of Multiple Toxic Metals from Water

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The presence of multiple toxic metals in water poses a serious environmental and public health risk, yet most adsorption studies focus on single-component systems that do not adequately represent real contamination scenarios. In this study, a low-cost adsorbent was prepared by coating waste keratin-based biomass fibers with Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and evaluated for the simultaneous removal of 14 toxic metal and metalloid ions from water. Batch adsorption experiments demonstrated removal efficiencies in the range of approximately 80–99% for different target ions under multielement conditions across a broad pH range. Multimodel kinetic and equilibrium behavior was observed depending on the element type, and adsorption evaluation was based on overall trends and consistency between experimental and calculated uptake values. Competitive adsorption among coexisting ions was also investigated. The applicability of the adsorbent was further confirmed using real drinking water and wastewater samples, yielding average recovery values of around 90%, indicating satisfactory performance in complex matrices. The results indicate that magnetite-coated waste biomass is a promising and sustainable adsorbent for multimetal water remediation under realistic conditions.