Removal of a Textile Azo-Dye (Basic Red 46) in Water by Efficient Adsorption on a Natural Clay

Removal of textile azo-dyes from industrial wastewater is a concerning problem in the modern societies. Adsorption of organic dyes is an alternative for removing these pollutants, but efficient and low-cost adsorbents are required. In this work, a natural (crude) bentonite was used as adsorbent to remove a model cationic (basic) textile dye (basic red 46). Some parameters such as initial dye concentration, time, pH, and temperature were studied in semi-batch experiments to obtain the best conditions for adsorption of basic red 46 (BR-46) with minimal quantity of adsorbent (10 mg in 100 mL of solution). An experimental adsorption capacity (qm) of 594 mg g−1 was determined directly from the adsorption curve for 60 mg L−1, pH=7 and 25 °C. The thermodynamic parameters ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° were also estimated. Several adsorption isotherms (Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin) and kinetic models (pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, and intra-particle diffusion) were applied to the experimental data; thus, the best settings were obtained by Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second order kinetic model. The comparison of results obtained for this natural bentonite with respect to some materials published in the literature reveals the excellent performance of this material for adsorption of BR-46, allowing a fast and higher removal (94% ± 4, at 10 min), under mild conditions (neutral pH, 25 °C and atmospheric pressure).