Magnetic Nanoparticle Water Remediation

Remediation Setup

Nanoparticles 120

Contaminant ions 220

Adsorption capacity (ions/particle) 3

Magnetic field strength 1.0×

Water Column Status

0% removed220 free ions

Elapsed time

0.0 s

Harvested particles

Saturated particles

Bound (in-water) ions

How it works

Superparamagnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles are coated with a chelating ligand shell that binds heavy-metal ions (e.g. Pb²⁺, Cd²⁺) on contact. Before a field is applied they simply diffuse — each step is drawn from the Stokes–Einstein random walk:

Δx = √(2·D·Δt) · N(0,1),   D = k_BT / (6πηr)

Binding follows pseudo-second-order adsorption kinetics (the Ho–McKay model used to fit real nanoparticle sorbent data):

dq/dt = k₂·(q_e − q)²

— capture probability falls to zero once a particle's site count q reaches its capacity q_e (the slider above). Once the external magnet is switched on, every particle (loaded or not) picks up a magnetophoretic drift velocity toward the collector plate:

v_mag = (χ·V·∇B²) / (6πηr)  ≈  field strength × constant

Particles that reach the plate are harvested — any contaminant ions still bound to them leave the water column, which is what actually drives the removal percentage down. Ions bound to a particle that hasn't reached the magnet yet count as "captured" but are not yet removed — a real distinction this simulator tracks separately, since sorption alone does nothing for water quality until the loaded sorbent is physically pulled out.

Nanoparticles / Contaminant ions — batch size for this remediation run.
Adsorption capacity — binding sites per particle before it saturates.
Field strength — magnet gradient strength once activated; higher pulls particles out faster.
Activate Magnet — starts magnetophoretic separation; toggle off to watch diffusion-only capture resume.

Free nanoparticle Saturated nanoparticle Free contaminant ion Bound / harvested ion

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