Author(s)

Yanrui Qin ¹, Yuanyuan Li ^1,2, Yanchen Jiang ¹, Yingnan Dong ^1,3, Jing Liu ⁴

Affiliation(s)

¹ College of New Energy, Shenyang Institute of Engineering, Shenyang, 110000, Liaoning, China
² Liaoning Datang International Fuxin Coal-to-sng Co., Ltd, Fuxin, 123000, Liaoning, China
³ Shenyang Jianningnengyuan High-tech Materials Co., Ltd, Shenyang, 110000, Liaoning, China
⁴ Liaoning Province Guojian Quality Inspection Research Center Co., Ltd, Shenyang, 110000, Liaoning, China

Corresponding Author

Yingnan Dong

ABSTRACT

Heavy metals such as copper, lead, and chromium in industrial wastewater are difficult to degrade naturally, and conventional treatment processes are prone to producing secondary pollutants. Magnetic ferroferric oxide (Fe₃O₄) materials can achieve rapid recovery through magnetic fields, and they have become popular materials for wastewater adsorption treatment. However, pure Fe₃O₄ particles are easy to agglomerate and lack sufficient effective adsorption sites. This study adopts a single ferrous salt precipitation oxidation process and uses citric acid as a modification auxiliary to prepare citric acid-modified Fe₃O₄ adsorbents. This study characterizes the micro-morphology, crystal structure, and pore parameters of the materials using SEM, XRD, and BET. It conducts comparative adsorption experiments using Cu²⁺ as the target heavy metal pollutant. Experimental data show that citric acid can slow down the grain growth rate through complexation, improve the dispersion degree of particles, and increase the specific surface area of materials. Nevertheless, citric acid will form an organic coating on the particle surface and occupy part of the hydroxyl active sites, so the final adsorption efficiency of the modified materials for Cu²⁺ is lower than that of unmodified Fe₃O₄ samples.

KEYWORDS

Fe₃O₄; Citric Acid-modified; Microstructure; Heavy Metal Adsorption; Wastewater Treatment

CITE THIS PAPER

Yanrui Qin, Yuanyuan Li, Yanchen Jiang, Yingnan Dong, Jing Liu. Microstructure and Heavy Metal Adsorption Properties of Citric Acid-modified Fe₃O₄ Adsorbents. Modern Physical Chemistry Research (2026) Vol. 6, No.1, 27-35. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/mpcr.2026.060105.

REFERENCES

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