Humic acid (HA) modifying Fe(3)O(4) nanoparticles (Fe(3)O(4)/HA) was developed for removal of Rhodamine B from water. Fe(3)O(4)/HA was prepared by a coprecipitation procedure with cheap and environmentally friendly iron salts and HA. TEM images revealed the Fe(3)O(4)/HA (with ≈ 10 nm Fe(3)O(4) cores) were aggregated as aqueous suspensions. With a saturation magnetization of 61.2 emu/g, the Fe(3)O(4)/HA could be simply recovered from water with magnetic separations at low magnetic field gradients within a few minutes. Sorption of the Rhodamine B to Fe(3)O(4)/HA reached equilibrium in less than 15 min, and agreed well to the Langmuir adsorption model with maximum adsorption capacities of 161.8 mg/g. The Fe(3)O(4)/HA was able to remove over 98.5% of Rhodamin B in water at optimized pH.
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