Kinetic and equilibrium studies on the adsorption of Direct Red 23 dye from aqueous solution using montmorillonite nanoclay

In this research, the adsorption of the Direct Red 23 dye from synthetic textile wastewater using nanoclay was studied in a batch system. The properties of nanoclay were investigated by scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared, and EDX analysis. The specific surface area of the nanoclay was determined using Sear's method. The results revealed that with increasing adsorbent dose and contact time and decreasing pH, ionic strength, and adsorbate concentration, dye removal efficiency has increased. Nanoclay could remove 99.4% dye from the solution containing 50 mg/L dye at 30 min. The results indicated that dye removal followed pseudo-second-order kinetic (R2 > 0.99) and the Langmuir isotherm. According to the findings, nanoclay is an effective adsorbent for direct dye removal from wastewater.