Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences, 2018, 8, 256-279 http://www.scirp.org/journal/jeas ISSN Online: 2161-4873 ISSN Print: 2161-4865 DOI: 10.4236/jeas.2018.84013 Dec. 20, 2018 256 Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences Review: Low Cost, Environmentally Friendly Humic Acid Coated Magnetite Nanoparticles (HA-MNP) and Its Application for the Remediation of Phosphate from Aqueous Media Tadewos Damena, Tajeldin Alansi Applied Chemistry Program, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia Abstract Phosphate is a primary nutrient required for the normal functioning of many organisms in the ecosystem. However, presence of excess phosphate into the aquatic systems leads to eutrophication which can promote harmful algal growth and decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen in water. Municipal, industrial and agricultural run-off wastewaters are the major point sources for phosphate discharges. There are different methods to remove phosphates from water. Among these, adsorption is the most widely accepted method for phosphate removal because of its high efficiency, minimum cost, easy and simple operation and applicability at lower concentrations. The emphasis of this review, is to consolidate low cost, environmentally friendly humic acid coated magnetite nanoparticles (HA-MNP) and its application for the re- mediation of phosphate from aqueous media. The magnetic nanoparticles could be easily separated from the reaction mixture by using a simple hand held magnet and adsorption studies demonstrate the fast and effective sepa- ration of phosphate with maximum removal efficiency > 90% at pH 6.6. The adsorption behavior follows the Freundlich isotherm and the removal of phosphate is found higher at acidic and neutral pH compared to basic condi- tions. The nanoparticles exhibit good selectivity and adsorption efficiency for phosphate in the presence of co-existing ions such as Cl − , 2 4 SO − and 3 NO − with some inhibition effect by 2 3 CO − and finally, the effect of temperature on the adsorption reveals that the process is endothermic and spontaneous. Keywords Phosphates, Magnetite Nanoparticle, Humic Acid & Humic Acid Coated Magnetite Nanoparticle How to cite this paper: Damena, T. and Alansi, T. (2018) Review: Low Cost, Envi- ronmentally Friendly Humic Acid Coated Magnetite Nanoparticles (HA-MNP) and Its Application for the Remediation of Phosphate from Aqueous Media. Journal of Encapsulation and Adsorption Sciences, 8, 256-279. https://doi.org/10.4236/jeas.2018.84013 Received: October 4, 2018 Accepted: December 17, 2018 Published: December 20, 2018 Copyright © 2018 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access