Synthesis and application of amine functionalized silica mesoporous magnetite nanoparticles for removal of chromium(VI) from aqueous solutions

In this research, novel nanoparticles of Kit-6 mesoporous silica magnetite were synthesized with 9.6 nm pore diameter and 241.68 m² g^?1 surface area. The synthesized mesoporous magnetite nanoparticles (MMNPs) were functionalized with amine groups. Scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption–desorption method confirmed the morphology and structure of the synthesized nanoparticles. The amine functionalized MMNPs were used for sorption of toxic chromate ions from aqueous samples. The effect of various experimental parameters (four factors at three levels) on the sorption efficiency of Cr(VI) was studied and optimized via Taguchi L₉ (3⁴) orthogonal array experimental design. At optimum conditions, the sorption of the Cr(VI) was best described by a pseudo second-order kinetic model with R² = 0.9999 and q_eq = 129.8 mg g^?1, suggesting chemisorption mechanism. Adsorption data were fitted well to the Langmuir isotherm and the synthesized sorbent showed complete ion removal with 185.2 mg g^?1sorption capacity.