Presence of high concentration of fluoride in water reservoirs, specially in drinking water, results in serious hygiene concerns. Adsorption is one of the effective and economic methods to eliminate high concentrations of fluoride from water.

According to Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC), chitosan has been used as a sorbent in this research to eliminate fluoride from aqueous environments. However, since the separation of the sorbent from the solution is very difficult and costly, magnetic properties have been created in the structure of the sorbent by using iron oxide nanoparticles. The synthesized magnetic composite is separated from the solution phase in the presence of a magnetic field in a short time through this method.

Results showed that the synthesized composite can be used as an effective sorbent to purify water contaminated by fluoride due to its simple and quick separation, high efficiency and the lack of the creation of secondary pollution in the solution. The composite can be reused even after five times of application and it can be recycled only by using acidic solution. Chitosan used in this research has been extracted from shrimp shell.

The most important advantages of the research include reducing pollution in surface or drinking water, reducing the cost of raw materials and increasing the rate of separation of sorbents from the sorbed pollutants in the liquid phase.

Results of the research have been published in RSC Advances, vol. 5, issue 89, 2015, pp. 73279-73289.