Biomass facilitated phase transformation of natural hematite at high temperatures and sorption of Cd2+ and Cu2+

Abstract Phase changes of natural hematite are often practiced to improve heavy metal removal and magnetism for easy recycling. In this work, pinewood biomass (PB) and natural hematite (H) admixtures were pyrolyzed at 300, 450 and 600 °C under N 2 environment to prepare HBC nanocomposites (HBC300, HBC450 and HBC600). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the reductive transformation of hematite (crystallite size ≈ 47 nm) into magnetite (25 nm) and further to wustite (25 nm) and zerovalent iron (48 nm). The Langmuir isotherms showed that the maximum sorption capacities of HBC300, HBC450, and HBC600 were 173, 138, and 130 mmol kg −1 for Cd 2+ , and 359, 172, and 197 mmol kg −1 for Cu 2+ , respectively. The higher pH up to 5 increased sorption of both Cd 2+ and Cu 2+ , whereas the higher ionic strength (0.05–0.4 M) decreased Cd 2+ sorption. Sorption of Cd 2+ and Cu 2+ by HBC300 was accompanied by one order of magnitude greater cation release than HBC450 and HBC600. In a binary system, Cd 2+ sorption was depressed by over four times in presence of Cu 2+ . Overall, ion exchange was more pronounced for HBC300, and Cu 2+ was more favorably retained by specific sorption than Cd 2+ . The greater magnetism of HBC nanoparticles favors separation from aqueous solutions.