Synthesis of Fe3O4 Nanoparticles Modified with Hyper Branched Dendrimers to Remove Anthracene from Contaminated Water

Introduction: Anthracene is one of the chemical and persistent pollutants released into the environment and the food chain causing irreparable damage to the immune system. This study aimed at removing anthracene from aqueous solutions using modified magnetic nanoparticles.   Materials & Methods: Initially, Fe3O4 nanoparticles were synthesized with silicon dioxide shell and then modified with organic dendrimers. The adsorbent product characterized by Fourier-transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. Following that, the effects of different operational parameters in the adsorption process were investigated in this study, and the UV-Vis spectrophotometer was used to measure the anthracene content in the solutions. The adsorbent resuscitation was also assessed in this study. Findings: The highest level of removal efficiency was obtained at the reaction time of 10 min, the adsorbent dosage of 0.7 g/L, and anthracene concentration of 20 mg L−1 at pH=7. The results showed that the adsorption process followed the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetics. Furthermore, the adsorbent product was capable of resuscitation up to 5 cycles.   Discussion & Conclusions: According to the results, the synthesized magnetic dendrimer was able to remove anthracene from aqueous solutions of contaminated water with high efficiency.