One-step fabrication of bifunctional self-assembled oligopeptides anchored magnetic carbon nanoparticles and their application in copper (II) ions removal from aqueous solutions

Abstract Copper ion (Cu (II)) pollution has attracted much attention due to its remarkable toxic domino effect at excess amount. Efficient Cu (II) ions removal is thus a prerequisite for wastewater recycling. Herein, we present a facile and environmentally benign strategy to fabricate thiol (SH)-functionalized Fe3O4@C nanoparticles (denoted as Fe3O4@C-SH NPs) based on one-step self-assembling of a bifunctional oligopeptide with a sequence of Cys-Lys-Cys-Lys-Cys-Lys (CK–VI) for highly efficient removal of copper ions (Cu (II)) in aqueous solutions. Under the physiological conditions, CK–VI readily self-organized into a robust and tailor-made functional monolayer predominately composed of well-packed β-sheets on the surface of Fe3O4@C NPs with their thiol groups standing on the outermost layer. The resulting Fe3O4@C-SH NPs containing abundant thiol active sites exhibited excellent adsorption capacity (up to 28.8 mg g−1) and selectivity for Cu (II) ions over coexisting ions. Compared with other covalent grafting methods with multistep processes and in harsh conditions, the proposed oligopeptides assembly-based coating method makes it possible to rapidly fabricate the Fe3O4@C-SH NPs in a simple mild one-step aqueous process with low cost. The current study provides facile and environmentally friendly approaches to rapidly tailor multifunctional surfaces of NPs for various toxic metal ions removal from wastewater.