ABSTRACTA
This study investigated the preparation of iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3). Fe2O3 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by co-precipitation with sonication method. The prepared Fe2O3 was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). From XRD data, the product is hematite Fe2O3 and the crystal size is 49 nm. From the SEM photomicrographs, the particle size is 55 nm which is good agree with XRD results and indicate that the product has uniform spherical particles. The Fe2O3 nanoparticles were used to remove Reactive Black 5H (RB5H) from aqueous solution. The effects of contact time, Fe2O3 dosage and dye concentration on adsorption of RB5H dye by Fe2O3 were investigated. The equilibrium adsorption data was analyzed using three common adsorption models: Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin. The adsorption study was analyzed kinetically, and the results revealed that the adsorption followed pseudo-second order kinetics with good correlation coefficients.