Preparation of magnetic adsorbent and its adsorption removal of pollutants: An overview

Magnetic adsorbents have played important roles in dealing with environmental pollution, due to the good combination of outstanding adsorption capacity and strong magnetism. This review summarizes the preparations of high-performance magnetic adsorbents and their applications in the adsorption removal of environment pollutants over the last three years. We have briefly discussed the modifications on the preparation strategies for magnetic adsorbents and other composited materials with well-controlled microstructures, inspiring the design of more powerful magnetic adsorbents. Furthermore, these prepared magnetic adsorbents have been used for adsorption removal of organic pollutants and metal ions with improved adsorption performance, either faster mass transfer or larger adsorption capacity. For the challenging removal of emerging nano/microplastics, magnetic adsorbents have also demonstrated unique advantages, which have been highlighted in this review. Not surprisingly, there also exist some difficulties for magnetic adsorbents used in adsorption removal of these pollutants, which have been pointed out.