Novel Gd₂O₃/SrFe₁₂O₁₉@Schiff base chitosan (Gd/SrFe@SBCs) nanocomposite as a novel magnetic sorbent for the removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution

In this work, novel Gd₂O₃/SrFe₁₂O₁₉@Schiff base chitosan (Gd/SrFe@SBCs) nanocomposite was prepared, and characterized using FT-IR, XRD, DSC, VSM, FE-SEM, X-ray energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), and map analyses. All results confirm that the Gd₂O₃/SrFe₁₂O₁₉ nanocomposite/Schiff base chitosan was successfully prepared. EDS and map analyses predict that all elements are well distributed to the compound. VSM shows that the title compound has high saturation magnetic of 17.35 emu/g with high coercivity of 4,664 Oe. In addition, Gd/SrFe@SBCs were used as new adsorbents to the removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions from aqueous solution, and results confirm that the removal efficiency of Pb(II) (98%) is higher than Cd(II) (78%) ion. At best conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity for Pb(II) is 183.7 and for Cd(II) is 146.2 mg/g. Reusability results show that the adsorption efficiency of Gd/SrFe@SBCs remained above 93% for Pb(II) and 71% for Cd(II) after five adsorption/desorption cycles. The effect of coexisting cation and anions was studied and confirm that the Gd/SrFe@SBCs had selective adsorption toward Pb(II). According to these results, we proposed that Gd/SrFe@SBCs studied as a sorbent to removal of other heavy metal ions.