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. 2023 Feb 1;13(3):587.
doi: 10.3390/nano13030587.

Phosphate Capture Enhancement Using Designed Iron Oxide-Based Nanostructures

Paula Duenas Ramirez  1 , Chaedong Lee  2 , Rebecca Fedderwitz  3 , Antonia R Clavijo  4 , Débora P P Barbosa  4 , Maxime Julliot  1 , Joana Vaz-Ramos  1   5 , Dominique Begin  5 , Stéphane Le Calvé  5 , Ariane Zaloszyc  5 , Philippe Choquet  6 , Maria A G Soler  4 , Damien Mertz  1 , Peter Kofinas  3 , Yuanzhe Piao  2   7 , Sylvie Begin-Colin  1
Affiliations

Phosphate Capture Enhancement Using Designed Iron Oxide-Based Nanostructures

Paula Duenas Ramirez et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Phosphates in high concentrations are harmful pollutants for the environment, and new and cheap solutions are currently needed for phosphate removal from polluted liquid media. Iron oxide nanoparticles show a promising capacity for removing phosphates from polluted media and can be easily separated from polluted media under an external magnetic field. However, they have to display a high surface area allowing high removal pollutant capacity while preserving their magnetic properties. In that context, the reproducible synthesis of magnetic iron oxide raspberry-shaped nanostructures (RSNs) by a modified polyol solvothermal method has been optimized, and the conditions to dope the latter with cobalt, zinc, and aluminum to improve the phosphate adsorption have been determined. These RSNs consist of oriented aggregates of iron oxide nanocrystals, providing a very high saturation magnetization and a superparamagnetic behavior that favor colloidal stability. Finally, the adsorption of phosphates as a function of pH, time, and phosphate concentration has been studied. The undoped and especially aluminum-doped RSNs were demonstrated to be very effective phosphate adsorbents, and they can be extracted from the media by applying a magnet.

Keywords: aluminium; iron oxide nanoclusters; iron precursor effect; phosphate adsorption studies; zinc and cobalt doping.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interest or personal relationship that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
General concept schematizing the different performed investigations on the synthesis of the raspberry-shaped nanostructures and on the evaluation of the RSN and the Al-RSN materials for phosphate removal.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Synthesis conditions of RSNs (top) and of doped RSNs (down). EG: ethylene glycol.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A.1–A.3) SEM images of all zinc-doped RSNs (inner image: size distribution); (B) XRD pattern; (C) IR spectrum of zinc-doped RSNs (9:1) (mixing time: 3 h; reaction time 12 h) (inner image: zoom on the Fe–O band characteristic of slightly oxidized magnetite).
Figure 4
Figure 4
SEM images of cobalt-doped RSNs. (A) Experiments with 3 h mixing (golden shading in A2 shows the carbonate particles and inner images = SEM size distribution). (B) Experiments with overnight mixing. (C) XRD pattern. (D) FTIR spectrum (inner image = zoom on Fe–O bands showing one band at 580 cm−1 characteristic of the magnetite phase). (E) Magnetization curves of the undoped and cobalt-doped (B.1) RSN at 300 K.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(A.1–A.5) SEM images of Al-RSNs (inner image: size distribution); (B) XRD pattern as a function of the Fe:Al ratio; (C) FTIR spectra (inner image: zoom of Fe–O band characteristic of a slightly oxidized magnetite phase); (D) magnetization curve of Al-RSNs at 300 K.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Adsorbed amount of phosphate by RSNs (left) and Al-RSNs (right) in a phosphate solution (50 P-mg·L−1) at pH 7 for different durations.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Adsorbed amount of phosphate in different media for 24 h by (A) RSNs and (B) Al-RSNs. In orange, in water at pH 3; in green, in water at pH 7.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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