Acidic and Basic Dyes Removal by Adsorption on Chemically Treated Mangrove Barks
Tan Lean Seey, Mohd Jain Noordin Mohd Kassim

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the adsorption characteristics of acidic and basic dyes onto chemically treated mangrove bark. The Rhizophora Apiculata barks, an industrial waste lignocellulosic product was obtained from the charcoal industry. The bark powder was chemically treated in an acidic formaldehyde solution to produce non-soluble adsorbent and used for the adsorption of dyes. Batch experiments were carried out for the adsorption of dyes molecules onto modified barks at room temperature (30 ± 2) ºC. Various factors such as pH, contact time, initial dyes concentrations, and amount of adsorbent were taken into account, and promising results were obtained. The applicability of the Langmuir as well as Freundlich adsorption isotherms for the present system was tested. The equilibrium data were found to be well represented by the Langmuir isotherm equation. The monolayer adsorption capacity of modified barks for Malachite Green (basic dye) and Sunset Yellow FCF (acidic dye) adsorption was found to be 129.87 mg g-1 and 12.72 mg g-1, respectively. The adsorption kinetics was found to follow pseudo- second order kinetic model for both dyes. These results indicate that mangrove bark could be employed as a low-cost material for the removal of the textile dyes from effluents.

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