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Research subject: In this study, EDTA-functionalized Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ magnetic nanocomposites with core-shell structure were synthesized to remove divalent cadmium ions from aqueous solutions.
Research approach: During the first step, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanosphere core-shell is synthesized using nano Fe₃O₄ as the core, TEOS as the silica source and PVA as the surfactant. This strategy relies on the covalently bonding of ethylendiaminetetraacetic acid to bis(3-aminopropyl)amine and cyanuric chloride functionalized magnetic nanoparticles. In the next step, characteristics of surface functional groups, crystal structure, magnetic properties, size and surface morphology of these nanoparticles were investigated, identified and analyzed using physico-chemical characterization techniques including fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), vibration sample magnetometry (VSM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analyzer.  The adsorbent, due to its magnetic property, could be simply separated from the reaction mixture by a permanent magnet and reused in five consecutive cycles without considerable loss in its activity.
Main results: To probe the nature of the adsorbent, various experiments were investigated like adsorbent dose and contact time were optimized. Kinetic studies and the effect of different amounts of adsorbent to remove divalent cadmium ions from aqueous solutions show a maximum adsorption of 94% at ambient temperature. Moreover, the recyclability of Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-EDTA was investigated in order to remove the divalent cation for successive adsorption-desorption cycles. All the results of studies show that the synthetic nanocomposite Fe₃O₄@SiO₂-EDTA is an effective, recyclable adsorbent with excellent performance for the removal of divalent cadmium.

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Research subject: This study demonstrates a synthetic strategy for the preparation of porous SiO₂ for adsorption applications using natural and waste materials from rice husks which are functionalized with polymer dendrimer molecules and surface amino groups as the source of biosilica and were investigated to remove divalent cadmium ions from aqueous solutions.
Research approach: Porous silica nanoparticles with a mean diameter of 45 nm were successfully fabricated from rice husk (RH) biomass via a multistep method. During the first step, sodium silicate is extracted from rice husks. Then, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, HCl, and acetic acid were added to the sodium silicate solution, and the resulting mixture was sonicated. After the hydrothermal reaction, the collected samples were calcinated to obtain silica nanoparticles. These synthetic nanoparticles were identified using various techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis and dynamic light scattering analysis. Then, the adsorption kinetics and the effects of synthetic nanoadsorbents dosage on the removal of divalent cadmium ions were investigated. The effect of contact time on cadmium adsorption and recyclability of adsorbent was also investigated.
Main results: The results show that there is no significant reduction in the performance and activity of this nanosorbent in the adsorption of metal ions after 6 times of recycling and reuse. The excellent performance of this nanosorbent in the removal of metal ions is due to its high porosity, active surface amine groups and high surface-to-volume ratio.