Adsorption of phenol on environmentally friendly Fe3O4/ chitosan/ zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 nanocomposite: Optimization by experimental design methodology

Fe 3 O 4 /chitosan/ZIF-8 nanocomposite as a novel bio-adsorbent for phenol removal is reported in the current work. The nanocomposite was prepared in situ, and ZIF-8 particles with rhombic dodecahedron morphology were grown on the composite successfully. FTIR, XRD, FESEM, TEM, BET, and VSM were applied to analyze the nanocomposite physiochemically. Central composite design model (CCD) was applied to optimize effective factors such as phenol initial concentration, pH, time, and adsorbent dosage on phenol uptake. The optimum condition was 77.21% (6.43 mg/g) uptake of phenol from 20 mL solution with initial phenol concentration of 20.22 mg/L and pH = 9.91, by 0.1 g of the adsorbent after 43.44 min. The pseudo-second-order and Langmuir patterns as kinetic and isotherm models interpreted phenol adsorption very well. The current research presents a deep understanding of the formation of Fe 3 O 4 /chitosan/ZIF-8 nanocomposite, which has a suitable potential in phenol adsorption.