IR and SEM-EDX studies on Polymer based mixed Metal (Fe-Mn-Zn) Oxides Nanocomposite Adsorbent for Removing Pb (II) ions from contaminated water

Abstract

The contamination of fresh water due to heavy metal is a serious problem of the present. The presence of heavy metals in fresh water bodies is continuously increasing due to industrialization and unsafe discharge of waste from these industries. The heavy metals are inorganic pollutants and are non-biodegradable. So, the removal of such type of contamination from fresh water is highly required. Various methods are adopted by researchers to overcome this difficulty. The adsorption is one of the most widely used technique to eliminate the heavy metals from the contaminated water. Among the adsorption methods, the method making use of polymeric magnetic nanocomposites is gaining interest in the researcher’s community. The advantage of polymeric nanocomposites lies in their easy separation from the aqueous system by applying external magnetic field. In the present study we have synthesized nanocomposites of mixed metal oxides of (Fe-Mn-Zn) in the copolymer matrix of aniline-formaldehyde. The material has been used to adsorb Pb (II) ions from the aqueous medium. IR and SEM-EDX studies have been used to study the adsorption characteristics of the material. From the IR studies the shift in IR peak positions and variation in the intensities of peaks after adsorption has been observed. This variation suggests the interaction of Pb ions with the copolymer backbone. Further, the SEM study confirmed the formation of nanosized particle of the materials and SEM-EDX study directly confirmed the Pb ions adsorption by these nanocomposites