ADSORPTION OF FOOD COLORING ALLURA RED DYE (E129) FROM AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS USING ACTIVATED CARBON

The adsorption behavior of Allura red (E129) from aqueous solutions onto activated carbon was successfully investigated. All factors affecting the adsorption process were carefully studied and the conditions were optimized. Adsorption of E129 onto activated carbon was found to increase by decreasing the mass of activated carbon, pH and ionic strength of the solution and by increasing temperature. The adsorption capacity of the activated carbon for Allura red was relatively high. Under the optimum conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity for E129 dye was 72.85 mg/g. Three adsorption models; Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin model were investigated regarding the adsorption of E129. The models’ parameters K L , qm, R2, (n) were determined and found to be 0.0222, 72.85 mg/g, 0.9057-0.9984, and 0.992, respectively. Also, pseudo first and second-order kinetic models were tested to determine the best-fit model to the adsorption of E129 dye onto activated carbon. The results showed that the adsorption of E129 onto activated carbon obeyed both the Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetic models. Moreover, thermodynamic studies indicated that the adsorption of E129 dye onto the activated carbon was spontaneous.