Industry 4.0
Vol. 10 (2025), Issue 6, pg(s) 230-233

SOCIETY & ”INDUSTRY 4.0”

Smart Magnetic Sorbent Materials for Arsenic Removal: Toward Sustainable Municipal Water Treatment Technologies

  • 1 VINČA Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • 2 Technical College of Applied Sciences in Zrenjanin, Serbia
  • 3 Institute of Catalysis, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
  • 4 Université Paris Est, ICMPE, (UMR7182), CNRS-UPEC, Thiais, F-94320, France
  • 5 Institute of Geotechnics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovakia
  • 6 Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

The transition toward sustainable, smart, and automated water treatment technologies represents a key goal of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This study presents the development and evaluation of magnetic Mg–Fe oxide spinel nanoparticles as efficient and recyclable sorbent materials for arsenic removal from real municipal groundwater containing naturally elevated concentrations. The materials were synthesized via microwave-assisted co-precipitation, structurally confirmed to possess a spinel-type crystal structure, and characterized magnetically using SQUID magnetometry. Batch adsorption experiments using groundwater from Zrenjanin (Serbia) demonstrated rapid and highly efficient arsenic removal. The most effective composition (sample S7, n(Mg)/n(Fe) = 0.213) reduced arsenic concentrations below the WHO limit of 10 μg/L within two minutes of contact time, achieving a maximum sorption capacity of 407 μg/g. Kinetic modeling showed an excellent fit to the pseudo-second-order model (R2 = 0.9999), indicating a chemisorption-controlled mechanism. The obtained results confirm that Mg–Fe oxide spinels combine high sorption efficiency, magnetic separability, and rapid kinetics, making them suitable for integration into sensor-controlled, modular, and automated water treatment systems. The study establishes a technological basis for the Industry 4.0-aligned development of smart magnetic sorbents for sustainable drinking water purification.

Keywords

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