An effective cerium (III) ions removal method using sodium alginate-coated magnetite (Alg-Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles

In this study, the effectiveness of Ce(III) ions adsorption in aqueous solution was investigated by modifying sodium alginate with magnetite nanoparticles. The magnetite nanoparticles were coated with sodium alginate (Alg-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles), which was prepared by the co-precipitation method. The average size of the Alg-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles was 13.70 nm. The optimum conditions for the adsorption process were found at pH 4, 4 hours of contact time and 0.15 g of adsorbent dosage in the batch condition. The adsorption process of Ce(III) ions followed the Langmuir isotherm. The kinetic data indicated that the intraparticle diffusion process was pseudo-second order with maximum adsorption capacity (q_m) of 31.83 mg g⁻¹. From this experiment, it can be concluded that Alg-Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles had good reusability shown by their adsorption-desorption ability using 0.01 M HNO₃ as the desorption agent.