Synthesis and characterization of nanocomposite NiFe2O4@SalenSi and its application in efficient removal of Ni(II) from aqueous solution

In this work, nano ferrite spinel NiFe2O4 was synthesized by sol-gel method and characterized by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and VSM. In second step Schiff base made from salicylaldehyde and amino propyl triethoxy silane was used for modification of the synthesized nano ferrit. In the third step removal of Ni(II) was done using modified adsorbent and 95% efficiency was achieved. The removal rate was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. These studies showed that the Freundlich isotherm model was fitted well with adsorption data. Moreover, the pseudo-second order kinetic model was fitted very well with experimental data. The results demonstrated that NiFe2O4@SalenSi nanoadsorbent can be used for the removal and recovery of metal ions from wastewater over a number of cycles, indicating its suitability for the design of a continuous process.