A novel Fe3+-stabilized magnetic polydopamine composite for enhanced selective adsorption and separation of Methylene blue from complex wastewater

Herein, a novel Fe 3+ -stabilized magnetic polydopamine composite (Fe 3 O 4 /PDA-Fe 3+ ) was facilely constructed, systematically characterized, and subsequently applied for the first time as a versatile adsorbent for treatment of Methylene blue (MB) in complex wastewater. Results showed that as-prepared material had prominent adsorption ability toward MB in its single dye solution over a wide pH range (3–10) with q max value of 608.8 mg/g at 318 K. More interestingly, MB could be selectively captured by resulting adsorbent from mixed dye solutions (MB-cationic dye and MB-anionic dye) and complex aqueous solution with high ionic strength up to 0.5 mol/L NaCl. It was eventually revealed that the enhanced and selective adsorption of MB by as-resultant adsorbent was due to the synergistic effects between multiple uptake mechanisms. What's more, its adsorption efficiency toward MB in simulated wastewater still maintained higher than 80 % of its original uptake performance after several runs of adsorption-desorption. Additionally, it exhibited more superior uptake performance toward MB than commercial powder activated carbon (PAC) in column adsorption system. Thus, the outstanding sorption ability, unique capture selectivity, as well as excellent stability and recyclability for model wastewater endow it a promising candidate adsorbent for selective adsorption and separation of MB from complex wastewater.