Facile preparation and highly efficient sorption of magnetic composite graphene oxide/Fe3O4/GC for uranium removal.

In this work, we reported for the first time a novel magnetic composite graphene oxide/Fe3O4/glucose-COOH (GO/Fe3O4/GC) that was facilely prepared from glucose through the hydrothermal carbonization and further combination with graphene oxide (GO). The chemical and structural properties of the samples were investigated. By the batch uranium adsorption experiments, the magnetic composite GO/Fe3O4/GC exhibits an excellent adsorption performance and fast solid–liquid separation for uranium from aqueous solution. GO/Fe3O4/GC (the maximum adsorption capacity (Qm) was 390.70 mg g−1) exhibited excellent adsorption capacity and higher removal rate (> 99%) for U(VI) than those of glucose-COOH (GC) and magnetic GC (MGC). The effect of the coexisting ions, such as Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, and Al3+, on the U(VI) removal efficiency of GO/Fe3O4/GC was examined. The equilibrium sorption and sorption rate for the as-prepared adsorbents well fit the Langmuir model and pseudo second-order kinetic model, respectively. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH0 = 11.57 kJ mol−1 and ΔG0 < 0) for GO/Fe3O4/GC indicate that the sorption process of U(VI) was exothermic and spontaneous. Thus, this research provides a facile strategy for the preparation of the magnetic composite with low cost, high efficiency and fast separation for the U(VI) removal from aqueous solution.