Heavy metal contamination
caused by industrial discharge is a challenging
environmental issue. Herein, an efficient adsorbent based on few-layered
magnetic graphene oxide (FLMGO) was fabricated, characterized, and
utilized to remove aqueous Cd(II) and Cu(II). Results present that
the two components graphene oxide (GO) and Fe
3
O
4
of FLMGO promote mutually, enabling FLMGO to outperform either GO
or Fe
3
O
4
. Specifically, FLMGO adsorbs Cd(II)
and Cu(II) with adsorption quantities of 401.14 and 1114.22 mg·g
–1
in 5 and 7 min, respectively. Moreover, FLMGO can
be readily recovered via magnetic separation using a hand-held magnet.
Adsorptions are spontaneous, endothermic, and entropy increasing,
which are the best described by the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order
model. The interaction mechanism is as follows: lone pair electrons
in C=O- and C–O-related groups were coordinated toward
Cd(II) and Cu(II) to induce chemical interaction. The high adsorption
efficiency endows FLMGO with encouraging application potential in
heavy metal remediation.