Nickel removal from aqueous solutions by peanut hull/fe3o4 composite material

Several types of agricultural waste are produced during the harvesting and processing of agricultural products. Some of these wastes are recycled in different applications, while for others, removal methods such as incineration and removal as solid wastes are applied. These wastes colud be used for water treatment due to its low cost, high in carbon and cellulose content and easy availability in order to prevent environmental problems that may be encountered in such methods as contributing to sustainability and removing them as uncontrolled combustion and solid waste. This usage provides both a solution to the problem of the removal of agricultural wastes and a reuse method for the use of wastes as a low cost adsorbent for a useful purpose. In recent years, the usage of adsorbent materials with magnetic properties, due to their surface properties and easy separation from the solution, increase in the removal of different pollutants from water and wastewaters. In this study, a magnetic composite was produced from peanut shell by chemical precipitation method and the efficiency of nickel removal from waters was investigated. Magnetic penut hull/Fe3O4 nanocomposite was characterized with SEM-EDX, FT-IR, TGA, BET and XRD analysis. The effects of various parameters, such as contact time, pH, initial nickel concentration, composite dose was investigated at 200 rpm speed rate and 25℃ constant ambient temperature. After the experimental study, a magnet was used to seperate the composite material from water. The maximum adsorption capacity of material was determined as 8.63 mg/g, at optimum adsorption conditions. According to the results of kinetic study, it was found to be compatible with the second order kinetic model. The data were applied to Langmuir and Freundlich equations and the Langmuir isotherm model was found to be more compatible. As a result, it is considered as a highly promising method considering the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles as a low-cost adsorbent from peanut hull which is an agricultural waste, the use of nickel removal from water, separation of material from water and heavy metal removal efficiency. Keywords: Nanoparticle, magnetic nanocomposite, peanut hull, Fe3O4, nickel, aqueous solution.