synthesis and application of iron oxide/silica gel nanocomposite for removal of sulfur dyes from aqueous solutions

background aims of the study: water pollution by synthetic organic dyes is mainly regarded as environmental and ecological critical issues worldwide. in this research, magnetite iron oxide/silica gel nanocomposite (termed as fe3o4/sg) was synthesized chemically and then used as an effective adsorbent for removal of sulfur dyes from aqueous solution. materials and methods: the various parameters such as ph, sorbent dosage, initial dye concentration, contact time and dye solution temperature were investigated in a batch system. the equilibrium data were analyzed by langmuir and freundlich isotherm models. results: the experimental data fit well with pseudo-second-order kinetic model (r² ≥0.998) and conformed better to langmuir isotherm model (r² ≥0.997). the maximum adsorption capacity for fe3o4/sg obtained from the langmuir model was 11.1mg/g. evaluation of thermodynamic parameters proved that the adsorption process was normally feasible, spontaneous and exothermic. conclusion: it can be concluded that the fe3o4/sg can be considered as a cost-effective and an environmental friendly adsorbent for efficient removal of sulfur dyes from aqueous solutions.