Preparation and Characterization of Magnetic Cobalt Ferrites/SBA-15 Nanocomposite Adsorbents and the Removal of Methylene Blue

In this paper, ordered mesoporous SBA-15 silica was synthesized by the hydrothermal method, and then a series of CoFe 2 O 4 /SBA-15 nanocomposites were synthesized by a facile impregnation method. X-ray diffraction and N 2 adsorption–desorption isotherms were used to characterize the microstructure and morphology of SBA-15 and CoFe 2 O 4 /SBA-15 nanocomposites. CoFe 2 O 4 nanoparticles presented spinel phase structure and existed in the mesopores of SBA-15. The magnetic response of CoFe 2 O 4 /SBA-15 nanocomposites was characterized with vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). The adsorption efficiency of CoFe 2 O 4 /SBA-15 nanocomposites for methylene blue increased firstly with the increasing CoFe 2 O 4 content, and then decreased. Sample-2 (SBA-15: CoFe 2 O[Formula: see text]: 0.1 in the precursor) not only presented the best adsorptive performance, but also could be separated and retrieved effectively by magnetic separation technique.