Urea functionalized magnetic graphene oxide: A novel adsorbent for Cu(II) remediation and study of catalytic activity of the resulting complex in p-nitrophenol reduction

Through the continuous growth of industrialization, water contamination of heavy metals has been a worldwide problem nowadays. Thereinto, copper (Cu(II)) is regarded as one of the important and hazardous inorganic contaminants [1] that can be accumulated in human bodies and cause various diseases [2]. Therefore, it is of great importance to eliminate Cu2+ ions from wastewater. So far, many methods have been employed to eliminate Cu2+ from wastewater including ion exchange, chemical precipitation, electrochemical separation process, solid phase extraction, membrane separation, and adsorption [3]. Among these methods, the adsorption technique is one of the most preferred methods for its easy operation, high efficiency, and cost-effectiveness [4]. Also, adsorbent is a very important step in the adsorption procedure. In this work, the urea functionalized magnetic graphene oxide (mGO@Urea) was fabricated and examined as a novel adsorbent for the removal of Cu2+ ions from aqueous solutions. After the adsorption process, the adsorbent was magnetically separated and applied as an efficient catalyst for the reduction of p-nitrophenol with NaBH4 (Scheme 1).