A Review of Magnetic Spinel Ferrite Nanoparticles as An Alternative for Wastewater Treatment

Water and wastewater pollution due to domestic, industrial, commercial, and agricultural activities and the production of colored pollutants, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals has become one of the major environmental challenges in developed and developing countries. Pollutants are harmful to living organisms and ecosystems and have a negative impact on them. Nanoparticles can purify pollutants at different depth levels located in water bodies and are used with advanced technologies such as membrane filtration and photocatalysis. Membrane and photocatalyst performance can be enhanced by incorporating spinel ferrite nanoparticles. This study aimed to review magnetic spinel ferrite nanoparticles as an alternative for wastewater treatment. The addition of spinel ferrite nanoparticles increases membrane permeability, resistance to fouling, mechanical and thermal stability for pollutant degradation, and self-cleaning. The addition of ferrite spinel nanoparticles will increase the hydrophilicity of the surface by reducing the fouling capacity of the membrane. Magnetic nanoadsorbents are a new generation of adsorbent materials that can easily bind to chemical pollutants and are currently used for magnetic separation of chemical pollutants. The tunable morphology, large surface area, easy separation after adsorption and high efficiency makes magnetic nanoadsorbents a prominent method for water and wastewater treatment. The attractive physical and chemical properties of spinel ferrite nanoparticles and their composites with their size, composition, magnetic properties, high chemical stability and easy surface modification with a semiconductor and organic species make them promising nanomaterials for wastewater treatment.