Preparation and characterization of APTES-assisted Fe3O4/CNTs composites with high decontamination and high magnetic recovery capacity

In this paper, the magnetic carbon nanotubes (CNTs) adsorbents with good adsorption capacity were prepared via linking Fe3O4 nanoparticles and CNTs by γ-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES). The prepared specimens were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectromete (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrometer and BET detection. The content of tartrazine in the adsorbed solution was detected by a UV-vis spectrophotometer. The results show that the granular Fe3O4 particles are uniformly distributed on the surface of the carbon nanotubes, and the composite characteristic peaks of CNTs and Fe3O4 are detected by XRD. The specific surface area, total pore volume and average adsorption pore size of Fe3O4/APTES/CNTs are 181.166m2/g, 2.109m3/g, and 44.582nm, respectively, and the equilibrium adsorption capacity for tartrazine is 25 mg/g. Fe3O4/APTES/CNTs had excellent dispersion property in aqueous solution, and could be attracted by magnetic force. So the magnetic CNTs adsorbents can be used in recycling and reuse by magnetic separation and thus have a huge application prospect.