A highly selective sorbent for removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions based on Fe₃O₄/poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted Tragacanth gum nanocomposite: optimization by experimental design.

In this work, poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted Tragacanth gum modified Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (P(MMA)-g-TG-MNs) were developed for the selective removal of Cr(VI) species from aqueous solutions in the presence of Cr(III). The sorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). A screening study on operational variables was performed using a two-level full factorial design.