Adsorption of Methylene Blue from Aqueous Solution onto Bentonite

Technological development brought a number of advantages and conveniences to the modern life, but also brought many problems, environment pollution above all. Although a number of methods for water refining are already developed, there is still a demand to find a more efficient, cheaper and ecologically more acceptable sorbents. Possibility of using bentonite as naturally occurring material for methylene blue (MB) removal from its aqueous solutions was investigated in this paper. Characterization of starting material has been conducted by chemical analysis, XRD, particle size analysis, and N-2 physisorption at -196 degrees C. The influence of the acidity of the initial MB solution on bentonite sorption characteristic was examined. Equilibrium sorption isotherms were determined. It was shown that with increase of pH and temperature the amount of sorbed MB increases.