Metals and Antibiotics as Aqueous Sequestration Targets for Magnetic Polyamidoamine-Grafted SBA-15.

In this study, a magnetic generation-5 polyamidoamine (G-5 PAMAM) dendrimer-functionalized SBA-15 (mPSBA) composite was synthesized by coupling amine-functionalized silica (SBA-15-NH) and amine-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNP-NH) with the G-5 PAMAM, before characterization and aqueous sorption of As(III), Cd(II), tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin using the composite. The mPSBA characterization data exhibited the typical Si-O-Si infrared peaks from the SBA-15 backbone in addition to the acquired characteristic infrared Fe-O and amide-I/II peaks from the MNP and G-5 PAMAM dendrimers, respectively. Postsorption infrared spectra showing shifts for the amide-linked groups indicated the likely points of contaminant attachment on the composite.