2.2. Fabrication of activated carbon/Fe3O4 nanoparticle composite
First, 20 g PAC was impregnated into a 80mL solution mixture of Fe(NO3)39H2O and HNO3 (20%) with heating at 100 C and magnetic stirring for 8 h. Then, the dried PAC was treated at 600C for 1 h in the presence of nitrogen to enable the formation of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. The obtained materials are denoted as xFe3O4/PACHNO3 where x refers to% wt of Fe3O4,( x = 5, 10, 25 and 30). The synthesis of a blank PAC-HNO3 sample followed the same procedure except that the impregnation solution was without the magnetic precursor.