A Novel Route to Treat Wastewater Containing Cationic Dyes

The combinations of acetic acid/water co-solvent and KCl were employed as the eluent to regenerate porous magnetic microspheres (PMMs) during treatment of wastewater containing cationic dyes. The effect of acetic acid/water volume ratio and KCl concentration on desorption percentages were systemically investigated. The results indicated that the carboxyl group in acetic acid could produce weak electrostatic attraction with cationic dyes, which was helpful to weaken the interaction between cationic dyes and sulfonic groups. The saturated solution of KCl in acetic acid displayed excellent regeneration capacity for PMMs including methyl violet. This fact was further demonstrated during desorption of basic fuchsin from PMMs. Overall, the present paper provided a novel and simple route to treat wastewater containing cationic dyes and optimized the combination of acetic acid/water co-solvent and KCl for regeneration of PMMs.