Enhanced adsorption of copper and cadmium by magnetic biochar with a high specific surface area prepared from penicillin mycelial dreg via K2FeO4 fabrication

In this study, a novel magnetic material (MPC800) was synthesized from penicillin mycelial dreg via K 2 FeO 4 fabrication. The characterization results demonstrated that Fe 3 O 4 particles were successfully loaded on the surface of MPC800, which provided independent functional sites, with high surface area accompanied by strong magnetic separation performance. The removal capacities of Cu 2+ and Cd 2+ on MPC800 in the single-metal system reached 93.28 mg/g and 69.20 mg/, respectively, at 25 °C and pH 5.0, which were 12.31 and 19.60 times higher than those before activation. The sorption of Cu 2+ and Cd 2+ on MPC800 fitted well to the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm model. In the binary-metals system, the sorption of Cu 2+ on MPC800 was slightly affected. At the same time, the uptake of Cd 2+ was severely inhibited, indicating that competitive adsorption occurred between the two metal ions , and the adsorption preference of Cu 2+ was better than that of Cd 2+ on MPC800. Furthermore, MPC800 was highly effective in metal ion solutions prepared with natural water and has an excellent recycling capacity.