Organic dye rhodamine B is one of the common organic pollutants in the water and soil environment. This study investigated the feasibility of removing rhodamine B from an aqueous solution through adsorption by kaolin, kaolin-sodium bentonite, and kaolin-organic bentonite. Batch adsorption test results showed that the maximum adsorption quantities of kaolin, kaolin-sodium bentonite, and kaolin-organic bentonite were 7.76 mg/g, 11.26 mg/g, and 12.68 mg/g, respectively, implying that the addition of bentonite to kaolin can effectively improve its adsorption capacity for rhodamine B. Moreover, the Langmuir isotherm model is suitable to describe the adsorption of rhodamine B by kaolin and kaolin-sodium bentonite, while it is preferable to use the Freundlich isotherm model in the case of kaolin-organic bentonite. The adsorption kinetic characteristics of rhodamine B, by these three adsorbents, are suitable to be described with a pseudo-second order kinetic model. Furthermore, the characteristics of the above three adsorbents were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The above results indicated that kaolin and organic bentonite can be used to design efficient adsorbents for organic pollutants similar to rhodamine B.
Keywords: adsorption; characterization; dye; isotherm; kinetics.