ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Optimizing and control of effective synthesize parameters for Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles using response surface methodology

Muneer M. Ba-Abbad, P. V. Chai, Abdelbaki Benamour, Dina Ewis, Abdul Wahab Mohammad, and Ebrahim Mahmoudi

Gas Processing Centre, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar

E-mail: mbaabbad@qu.edu.qa

Received: 25 December 2021  Accepted: 2 June 2022

Abstract:

To control Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄ NPs) size, different molar ratio of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ as well as ammonium hydroxide (pH) was used to synthesize Fe₃O₄ NPs through co-precipitation method. The Box–Behnken design was selected to explore the interaction between process parameters (factors) such as Fe²⁺ molar ion, Fe³⁺ molar ion and pH on the final size. The interactive effect between the process variables was evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The quadratic model predicted by the Box–Behnken design was significant with a P value of < 0.0001. The optimum synthesis conditions were predicted by the model indicating optimum size obtained using 1.00 mol Fe²⁺ ion with 3.00 mol Fe³⁺ ion with pH at 12.00. From the experiment, the particle size was 10 ± 2 nm at optimum conditions, while the model predicted a particle size of 6.80 nm. The magnetic properties of Fe₃O₄ NPs were displayed typical ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization value to be 49.729 emu/g. Finally, the optimized Fe₃O₄ NPs showed about 80% removal of Congo red (CR) dye, which confirms their applicability in adsorption process for future applications.

Keywords: Fe3O4 nanoparticles; Coprecipitation method; Box–Behnken design; Analysis of variance

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02320-y

Chemical Papers 76 (10) 6359–6370 (2022)