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INTRODUCTION
The presence of organic contaminants in water causes some serious problems to aquatic life and human health disorders even in trace amounts (Chen & Wu 2014). Among various organic contaminants, discharge of synthetic dyes into the hydrosphere possess a significant source of pollution due to their recalcitrant nature. This gives an undesirable color to water bodies which will reduce sunlight penetration and disturbs photochemical and biological cycles of aquatic life (Wong et al. 2004). Synthetic dyes are widely used in many fields of advanced technology, e.g., in various kinds of the textile, paper, leather tanning, food processing, plastics, cosmetics, rubber, printing, and dye manufacturing industries. The release of synthetic dyes to the environment poses challenges to environmental scientists. These concerns have led to new and strict regulations concerning colored wastewater discharge as well as developing more efficient treatment technologies.
Various methods, such as adsorption, advanced oxidation processes, biodegradation, coagulation, and the membrane process, have been suggested to handle dye removal from water. All these processes have some advantages or disadvantages over the other methods (Khataee & Kasiri 2010; Chen & Wu 2014). A balanced approach is, therefore, needed to look into the worthiness on choosing an appropriate method which can be used to remove the dye in solution. The adsorption method is the most applied in the removal of organic dyes and pigments from wastewaters since it can produce high-quality water, and it can be employed as a process that is economically feasible (Madrakian et al. 2011). Many textile industries use commercial activated carbon for the treatment of dye waste. Although activated carbon is commonly used as an adsorbent for color removal, its main disadvantage is its high production and treatment costs (Afkhami et al. 2007; Madrakian et al. 2011). Thus, many researchers throughout the world have focused their efforts on optimizing adsorption and developing novel alternative adsorbents with higher adsorption capacities and lower costs. In this regard, much attention has recently been paid to nanotechnology.
Nanometer-sized materials are widely used for the effective adsorption of different chemical species from water samples (Madrakian et al. 2013a; Kyzas & Matis 2015). The magnetic nanoparticle as an efficient adsorbent with a large specific surface area and small diffusion resistance has been recognized (Ngomsik et al. 2005)....