Kinetic and equilibrium studies of adsorption of acid blue dye onto preformed flocs as adsorbents

Adsorption studies of decolorization of Acid blue dye by using novel adsorbents of preformed flocs of Aluminum Sulphate, Ferric Chloride, and Ferrous Sulphate were carried out through non-flow batch sorption studies. The influence of pH, equilibrium contact time, and floc dose on color removal was studied. Kinetic and equilibrium studies were carried out to know the efficacy of adsorbents in the decolorization of an aqueous solution of C.I. Acid blue 113 dye. In order to probe into the mechanism involved in the decolorization of dye solution, FTIR and SEM studies were conducted. The Langmuir isotherm was well fitted to the equilibrium data implying that there is monolayer formation in the process of sorption. Kinetic data fitted well to pseudo second order which states that chemisorption is the rate limiting step in the adsorption process. The adsorption capacity of preformed flocs of aluminum sulphate, ferric chloride, and ferrous sulphate were found to be 450 mg/g, 500 mg/g, and 125 mg/g. FTIR and SEM studies shows that there is adsorbent-dye complex formation in the adsorption process of decolorization of Acid dye with preformed flocs.