Design and Preparation of Magnetically-Oriented Poly(styr-co-MMA)-3MPS Capped Fe(ZnO) Hybrid Microspheres for Ion Exchange Removal of Toxic Pollutants from Wastewater

In this work, polymeric microspheres derived from polystyrene-co-methyl methacrylate embedded with magnetic ZnO nanoparticles (poly(styrene-co-MMA)-3MPS-Fe (ZnO)) were synthesized using the suspension polymerization method. The surfaces of Fe(ZnO) improved by functionalization amino and sulphonate groups. physicochemical analysis indicated a large number positively charged (anion exchange) groups (91 mmol/g) on amine-modified microsphere (MFZPI) negatively (cation (90 sulphonate-modified (SMFZPI)—revealing ambivalent character obtained sorbent. characterization compounds various analytical techniques such as TGA, FTIR, XRD, SEM/EDX, UV-VIS VSM that thermally stable, semi-crystalline in structure hollow irregular morphology, optically active UV region slightly nature. Due to introduction having ion exchange properties, these modified poly(styrene-co-MMA)-3MPS-Fe(ZnO) used for sorptive removal Cr(III) fluorescein aqueous matrix. equilibrium sorption capacity was 16.79 mg/g whereas 12.03 under optimized conditions. Therefore, SMFZPI found be promising sorbent both cationic heavy metals anionic dyes due presence acidic basic mathematical modelling revealed phenomenon followed pseudo-second-order kinetics Freundlich isotherm, indicating multilayer chemisorption pollutants sorbents. This work establishes utilization ZnO-based sorbents effectively remove harmful toxins wastewater.