Eco-friendly magnetic activated carbon nano-hybrid for facile oil spills separation

This work focuses mainly on environmental concern and protection through providing beneficial use of waste biomass from water hyacinth to produce economical nano-magnetic adsorbent material-efficient for facile oil spill separation via an external magnetic field. The water hyacinth roots showed higher oil spills adsorption affinity of 2.2 g/g compared with 1.2 g/g for shoots. Nano-activated carbon was successfully extracted from the roots of water hyacinth after alkaline activation and followed by zinc chloride treatment before its carbonization. Nano-magnetite was induced into the activated carbonized nanomaterials to synthesized nano-magnetic activated carbon hybrid material (NMAC). X-ray diffraction elucidated the crystalline nature of both extracted activated carbon from water hyacinth and its magnetic hybrid material. Scanning electron microscopic micrographs implied the nano-size of both prepared activated carbon and the magnetite hybrid materials. The magnetic properties of the fabricated nano-magnetic activated carbon were evaluated using the vibrating sample magnetometer. The magnetic nano-hybrid material recorded a maximum oil adsorption affinity of 30.2 g oil/g. The optimum oil spill of 80% was established after 60 min in the presence of 1 g/L of magnetic nano-hybrid. The magnetic nano-hybrid material that absorbs oil spills was separated from the treatment media easily using an external magnetic field.