Fabrication of Magnesium Ferrites for Enormous Adsorbance of Neutral Red and Their Electrochemical Properties

Magnetic magnesium ferrite nanoparticles were fabricated via the ethanol-assisted solution combustion and gel calcination route. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area measurement, vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were applied to characterize magnetic magnesium ferrite nanoparticles which were prepared under the condition of 20 mL absolute alcohol and calcined at 600 °C for two hours. The results showed that the nanoparticles were spinel structure with the saturation magnetization of 183 emu·g⁻¹, the average grain size of 52 nm, the specific surface area of 33.2 m² · g⁻¹. In addition, the electrochemical property and adsorption mechanism of neutral red (NR) onto the magnetic MgFe₂O₄ nanoparticles were investigated. The adsorption results were conformed to the pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetic and Temkin model, which implied that the multimolecular layer chemical adsorption had occurred. Moreover, the pH had little effect on the process of the adsorption, and the value of the magnetic magnesium ferrite nanoparticles for NR adsorption was up to 555 mg · g⁻¹.