Study of fabrication of organic modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles polyethersulfone membrane (PES\Org-Fe3O4 NPs) for the removal of mercury ions from aqueous solutions

Mercury is highly toxic heavy metal that causes human health problems and environmental contamination [1]. The aim of this paper is study of fabrication of organic modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles polyethersulfone membrane(PES\Org- Fe3O4 NPs) for the removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solutions. All prossecc was conducted in labraory scale. In this work, organic modified Fe3O4 nanoparticles has been used as a purification agent on membrane for removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solutions. The effects of parameters such as pH solution, initial metal concentration, weight percent of modifier and permeat flux were studied. Membrane morphological characteristics were examined via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Under the optimum experimental conditions, the removal efficiency was as high as 93% and the maximum sorption capacity is found to be 49.85 μM for Hg(II) at pH 5. The obtained results showed that PES\Org- Fe3O4 NPs is a readily, available, economic and safe for treatment of mercury polluted waters.