The Effective Removal of Congo Red Dye from Aqueous Solution Using Fly Ash/CeO2 Composite Material

Fly ash/CeO2 composite adsorbent (FA/CeO2) was prepared by HCl treatment and precipitation method using a low-cost waste fly ash (FA) as the raw material and used for the removal of Congo Red (CR) from aqueous solution. Effects of important parameters such as contact time, initial dye concentration, pH value and temperature were explored. Adsorption equilibrium and isotherms were investigated. The adsorption of CR onto FA/CeO2 is a fast process and to achieve a basic balance in 30 minutes. The removal of CR is strongly pH-dependent. FA/CeO2 is an effective adsorbent for the CR removal with removal rate of 98.8% when initial CR concentration is 1000 mg/L. The experimental isotherm data were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The results revealed that the adsorption behavior of CR on FA/CeO2 fitted well with the Langmuir model at different temperatures. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained by Langmuir model is 232.56 mg/g which is nearly consistent with the actual adsorption value of 230.01 mg/g at 298K. The Adsorption amount decreases with increasing temperature, but the variation of the amplitude is very small.