Sustainable adsorptive removal of high concentration organic contaminants from water using biodegradable Gum-Acacia integrated magnetite nanoparticles hydrogel adsorbent

Release of industrial effluents comprising dyes in water bodies is one of the foremost causes of water pollution. Therefore, the proper and proficient treatment of these dyes contaminated left-over material before their release is crucial. Herein, an eco-friendly biological macromolecule Gum-Acacia (GA) integrated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles composite hydrogel was manufactured via co-precipitation technique for effective adsorption of Congo red (CR) dye existing in water bodies. The as-prepared magnetic GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel was characterized by FTIR, XRD, EDX, VSM, SEM, and BET techniques. These studies discovered the fruitful fabrication of biodegradable magnetic GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel possessing porous structure with large surface area (21.78 m²/g) and enough saturated magnetization value (24.5 emu/g) for the efficient elimination of CR. The magnetic GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel showed higher adsorption (96.3 %) of CR as compared to pristine Fe₃O₄ (45 %) in 50 min at pH 6 with 0.02 g of adsorbent and 100 ppm CR. The data obtained from the adsorption of CR over GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel have a linear relationship, following the pseudo second-order kinetic model (R² = 0.990) and Freundlich adsorption isotherm model (R² = 0.983). The evaluated factors of thermodynamic recommended that the experiments were favourable, spontaneous, and exothermic in nature. In addition, the biodegradable magnetic GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel also exhibited excellent desorption as well as recyclability owing to its amazing robust magnetic nature. What is more, the GA/Fe₃O₄ composite hydrogel reserved the same % adsorption proficiency (>96.3 %) up to several repeated rounds, proving its potential applicability for water purgative at domestic plus industrial level.