Removal of Malachite green dye from aqueous solution using treated sugarcane bagasse adsorbent

Abstract

The effectiveness of alkali-acid modification in enhancing the adsorption capacity of sugarcane bagasse for removing malachite green dye (MG) was studied. The obtained adsorbent was characterized by FTIR analyses. Effects of initial concentration of MG dye, adsorbent dose and pH of solution on the removal of MG were reported. Adsorption of MG was described by the Langmuir and Freundlich models meanwhile kinetic studies were analyzed using the pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second order. The equilibrium data were best represented by the Langmuir isotherms. The intraparticle diffusion models were found to follow closely the pseudo-second-order model. It was found that the adsorption capacity is highly dependent on the initial concentration of MG dye, adsorbent dose and pH of solution. Overall, the results indicated that the alkali-acid treatment proved to be a potential modification for producing effective low-cost adsorbents for the removal of the basic dyes from wastewater.