Selective adsorption and determination of iron(III): Mn3O4/TiO2 composite nanosheets as marker of iron for environmental applications

Abstract Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 composite nanosheets have been synthesized by simple and low temperature magnetic stirring method and applied for water treatment application. The synthesized Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 composite nanosheets were characterized by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The spectroscopic techniques agreed that synthesized product is well crystalline nanosheets composed of Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 . The analytical potential of synthesized Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 composite nanosheets was studied for a selective separation of Fe 3+ prior to its determination by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The selectivity of Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 composite nanosheets toward different metal ions, including Au 3+ , Cd 2+ , Co 2+ , Cr 3+ , Fe 3+ , Pd 2+ and Zn 2+ was investigated. Results of the selectivity study demonstrated that Mn 3 O 4 /TiO 2 composite nanosheets were the most selective toward Fe 3+ . The adsorption capacity of Fe 3+ was found to be 69.80 mg g −1 . Moreover, adsorption isotherm data also provided that the adsorption process was mainly monolayer on a homogeneous adsorbent surface.