In this work, iron ore tailing (IOT) was used for the production of two different materials: sodium silicate and geopolymers. Initially, reactions of IOT with NaOH were carried out by hydrothermal reaction in autoclave at 200 °C (1:1.5 and 1:2.5 SiO2:NaOH molar ratio) and reaction times of 4 and 8 h. X-ray fluorescence by dispersive energy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS) and titrations showed that IOT:NaOH ratios of 1:2.5 and reaction time 8 h completely dissolved the quartz from the IOT, obtaining a solid fraction consisting mainly of hematite and an aqueous phase of sodium silicate, which showed contents of ca. 23% SiO2 and 19% Na2O. This sodium silicate obtained was then combined with IOT (25 and 50 wt.%) to produce geopolimeric material with excellent physico-chemical properties, fast curing time and very good compressive strength results, which ranged from 41 to 58 MPa and many potential applications.

In this work, we describe a sustainable alternative to recover iron from two iron ore tailings (IOT) using hydrogen reduction at relatively low temperatures followed by magnetic separation. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), atomic absorption (AA), Mössbauer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS), Raman and thermogravimetry (TG) analyses indicated that the Fe oxide present in the IOTs (sandy tailing (ST) and mud tailings (MT)), can be reduced with H2 at 500 ºC to produce α-Fe. Upon magnetic separation the mud tailing produced a 77 wt.% magnetic fraction increasing the Fe content from 19.2 to ca. 56 wt.% of Fe. On the other hand, the sandy tailing resulted in a 15 wt.% magnetic fraction increasing the Fe content from 19.2 to 70 wt.%. These results indicate that up to 86% of iron can be recovered from the IOT wastes already in the metallic form which can be very interesting for the steel industry.

According to the World Health Organization, amoxicillin (AMX) is the most widely consumed antibiotic in the world. Consequently, there is great interest in the development of new technologies that allow the removal of this type of contaminant, as exposure to antibiotic residues can cause a variety of adverse effects, such as toxicity and antimicrobial resistance. In this work, AMX adsorption from aqueous solution was investigated using nickel ferrite nanoparticles. The nanoadsorbents were prepared by the coprecipitation method, annealed at 300 to 700 °C, and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Mössbauer spectroscopy (ME) and vibratory sample magnetometry (VSM). Nanoparticle size, pH and temperature were found to significantly affect the amount of adsorbed AMX. The pseudo-second order kinetic model described the adsorption process and the adsorption isotherm fitted to the Freundlich model. AMX adsorption capacity was 104-45 mg g−1 (miligram of AMX per gram of ferrite) for ferrite annealed at 300-700 °C, respectively. The nanoadsorbents employed showed higher AMX removal efficiency when compared to other iron oxides. Moreover, the good reuse results obtained showed their great potential for antibiotic removal by adsorption.

In this work, efficient adsorbents for β-lactam antibiotics based on mesoporous iron oxide containing surface [FeOx(OH)y] sites were produced by controlled precipitation of iron hydroxide and thermal treatment at 150, 200, 300 and 450 ºC (150FeOH, 200FeOH, 300FeOH and 450FeOH, respectively). Mössbauer, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry (TG-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental analyses showed that the temperature caused a gradual dehydroxylation process with a significant increase of the mesoporous surface area (e.g., 114-142 m2 g-1 with 46-59% mesopores, i.e., 0.04-0.09 cm3 g-1) and approximate compositions of FeO1.06(OH)0.89 for 150FeOH up to FeO1.38(OH)0.26 for 450FeOH. The material 150FeOH showed high adsorption capacities of ca. 42 and 58 mg g-1 for amoxicillin and ceftriaxone, respectively. Experiments assessing the effect of NO3-, Cl-, competitive PO43- adsorption and H2O2 decomposition suggest that the [FeOx(OH)y] surface sites located in the mesopores are involved in the efficient adsorption by complexation of the β-lactam antibiotics.