Synthesis of polyaniline/ magnetite nanocomposite for removal of cadmium from wastewater

Water pollution is one of the most serious problems posing human health risks and causes a detrimental effect on humanity. Heavy metal ions as environmental pollutants have emerged as a focus of global concern in the last few decades, due to their irreparable effects on the environment. Cadmium, being one of the heavy metals, has been listed as a category-I carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and as a Group-B1 carcinogen by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA). In recent decades, polymeric adsorbents have appeared as potential alternatives to traditional adsorbents. Among polymer nanocomposites, conducting polymers, such as polyaniline (PANI) and its derivatives, polythiophene, polyethylenimine, polypyrrole and their derivatives have received significant attention. To each of the conductive polymers, PANI and its derivatives have attracted greater attention. Polyaniline and its derivatives, as conducting polymers, are good adsorbents to remove various kinds of heavy metal ions and dyes from wastewater. They have displayed good adsorption capability due to their large amount of amine and imine functional groups in the polymer chains, accordingly, they are used as adsorbents for the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater. In this study, aniline/ magnetite nanocomposites have been synthesized for removal of cadmium from wastewater. All experiments were carried out on samples with a concentration of 100 mg/L of Cd2 + and 0.1 g/L adsorbent. Based on the results, the synthesized absorbent has an absorption capacity of 760 mg/g. This absorption capacity is much higher than that of other cadmium removal researches.