Adsorption of Dye Organic Pollutant Using Magnetic ZnO Embedded on the Surface of Graphene Oxide

Two kinds of magnetic adsorbents containing ZnO nanoparticles and graphene oxide (MGOZ#1 and MGOZ#2) are synthesized for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The prepared adsorbents are characterized using VSM and TEM. The results show that both of MGOZ#1 and MGOZ#2 are superparamagnetic. Meanwhile, the enhancement of ZnO content in MGOZ#2 rather than MGOZ#1 leads to the reduction of the magnetic properties. The statistical analysis of MO degradation confirm that irradiation time (from 5 to 40 min), weight fraction of adsorbents (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 wt%), pH (3, 7 and 11) and their double and triple interactions have a significant effect at 5% level of probability. The degradation rate of MO using MGOZ#2 is higher than that of MGOZ#1.