SYNTHESIS OF NANO IRON OXIDE MATERIAL BY Fe3+/POLYVINYL ANCOL (PVA) GEL CALCINATION METHOD AND SURVEY ON THE REMOVAL POSSIBILITY OF HEAVY METALS (Pb, Cd) FROM WATER ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

In this work, nano iron oxide was synthesized by Fe³⁺/PVA gel calcination method. Material structure characteristics were determined by the diagram of X-ray diffraction (XRD) with the appearance of typical peaks at 2q = 33.2^o and 35.7^o and the average size of nanoparticles at 25 nm, Brunauer - Emmett - Teillor method (BET) with the specific surface area at 47.317 m²/g; thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) method with the crystalization of α-Fe₂O₃ at above 400^oC; scanning electron microscope (SEM) method with the presence of nanoparticles and their fairly uniform distribution. The synthesized material was applied to study the removal possibility of some heavy metals (Pb, Cd) from the water environment. The results showed that fabricated material has high removal ability towards Pb, while removing Cd from the water environment is less effective. The performance can reach 99.9% for the removal of Pb while only 67.7% is for Cd.