Magnesium nanoparticles-coated carbon nanofibers to treat water contaminated with heavy metals

Water pollution has become a critical issue around the world. Indeed, Mg-NPs/C-NFs nanocomposites were prepared for such applications. For this study, the Mg-NPs coating was prepared on a C-NFs surface through the arc plasma method with different currents (50, 75, and 100 A) in double-distilled, de-ionized water (DDDW). Transmission electron microscope images (TEM), a UV–Visible spectrophotometer (UV–V), X-ray diffraction (DRX), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and other analytical methods were applied to characterize the properties of the prepared nanomaterials. The atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) analyses showed that the Mg-NPs-coated C-NFs could adsorb the heavy metals present in polluted water. In the tested 100 mL of polluted water, the concentrations of Pb, Cu, Zn, and Mn were 0.060, 0.024, 0.050, and 0.010 mg/L, respectively. It was found that once treated by the coupled Mg-NPs-coated C-NFs produced at 100 A, the 100 mL of polluted water had significantly reduced concentrations of Pb, Cu, Zn, and Mn at 0.019, 0.013, 0.011, and 0.007 mg/L, respectively. These results support the efficacy of magnesium/carbon nanocomposites for water treatment and suggest some research ideas for environmental applications.