Synthesis of Iron Nanomaterials for Environmental Applications from Hydrometallurgical Liquors

Hydrometallurgical leaching solutions are often rich in iron, which was traditionally considered a major impurity. However, iron can be selectively separated and recovered by applying appropriate solvent extraction stripping techniques, the resulting valorized for synthesis of high-added-value products, such as magnetic oxide nanoparticles (mIONPs). The aim this study to synthesize high-quality mIONPs from simulating composition two alternative processes. precursor consisted Fe(II) an acidic sulfate environment Fe(III) chloride medium. Fe(II)-SO4 solution treated with mixture KNO3-KOH reagents, product (M(II)) identified pure magnetite high specific magnetization 95 emu·g−1. treatment Fe(III)-Cl involved partial reduction using metallic co-precipitation cations base addition combined microwave-assisted heating. (M(III)) powder, phases, e.g., maghemite (75%) (25%), also had saturation 80 nanopowders were evaluated their effectiveness removing Cr(VI) contaminated waters. maximum adsorption capacity found equal 11.4 17.4 mg/g M(II) M(III), respectively. could easily waters, property that makes them promising materials water sector.