Effective Removal of Pb(II) from Aqueous Media by a New Design of Cu–Mg Binary Ferrite

[Image: see text] Metal oxides and their composites have been extensively studied as effective adsorbents for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions in environmental remediation. In this work, Cu(0.5)Mg(0.5)Fe(2)O(4) was synthesized by a co-precipitation method followed by calcination (900 °C) and investigated for Pb(II) adsorption. The resultant samples were characterized by various analytical techniques including X-ray diffraction, N(2) adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results revealed that single-phase cubic spinel was obtained by the calcination of as-synthesized samples at a temperature of 900 °C. Cu(0.5)Mg(0.5)Fe(2)O(4) ferrite is a mesoporous material with a surface area, a total pore volume, and an average pore size of 41.3 m(2)/g, 0.2 cm(3)/g, and 15.1 nm, respectively. Pb(II) adsorption on Cu(0.5)Mg(0.5)Fe(2)O(4) fitted well to the Langmuir model, indicating monolayer adsorption with a maximum capacity of 57.7 mg/g. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model can exactly describe Pb(II) adsorption with the normalized standard deviation (Δq) of 1.24%. The obtained results confirmed that the Cu(0.5)Mg(0.5)Fe(2)O(4) ternary oxides exhibit a high adsorption capacity toward Pb(II), thanks to the increase in active adsorptive sites of ferrite.