Removal of Methyl Violet from Aqueous Solutions Using Algae/ Fe3O4 Magnetic Composite

It is estimated that approximately 40,000 tons of dyes from an overall annual production of450,000 tons end up in wastewater streams. Dyes are synthetic aromatic materials with differentfunctional groups. Dyes are extensively used in several industries such as textile, leather tanning,food processing, cosmetics, electroplating, paper, and pharmaceutical industries. Dischargingeven a small amount of dyes into water resources can affect the biotic communities ofecosystem. They may be mutagenic and carcinogenic and can cause a severe health hazard tohuman beings, such as dysfunction of kidney, reproductive system, liver, brain and centralnervous system, and thus should be treated before discharging into the receiving body of water[1].Therefore, removal of dyes from the wastewater has been an important environmental concern tominimize the water and soil pollution.A wide range of methods have been developed for the removal of synthetic dyes fromwaters and wastewaters to decrease their impact in environment. Among these physico-chemicalmethods like adsorption, electrochemical coagulation are popular now a days [2]. Among thesemethods, adsorption has been found to be one of the most prominent and economic methods forthe treatment of dyes from wastewater [3]. Materials such as egg shell, peanut hull, activatedcarbon, and microorganisms have been used as an adsorbent for the removal of dyes fromeffluents. In this study, algae/Fe3O4 magnetic composite was prepared and used to removemethyl violet from aqueous solutions. The chemical structure and surface morphology of thealgae/Fe3O4 magnetic composite were studied by SEM, XRD and FTIR analysis.

Keywords:

Algae , Methyl Violet , Magnetic Composite