Synthesis and properties of magnetic Fe3O4-activated carbon nanocomposite particles for dye removal

Abstract Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 -activated carbon nanocomposite was synthesized for the first time from rice husk based activated carbon. It was interesting to find the obtained composite still held a relatively large pore diameter of 3.1 nm, high surface area of 770 m 2 /g with 23 wt.% Fe 3 O 4 coated, and a saturation magnetization (Ms) of 2.78 emu/g. The system demonstrated perfect magnetic separation performance and a high adsorption capacity of 321 mg/g for Methylene Blue (MB) from aqueous solution, both of which are significant for activated carbon’ s use as adsorbent.