article · Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences
Thermally activated montmorillonite clay was evaluated as an adsorbent to remove dye from aqueous solutions. Structural characterisation confirmed key silicon and aluminium oxide bonds, an average particle size of 40.42 nanometres, and a flake-like, irregular surface morphology. Chemical analysis showed high concentrations of silicon dioxide at 58.032 percent and aluminium oxide at 15.888 percent, with thermal analysis identifying distinct stages of mass loss across heating intervals. In batch testing, the activated clay achieved an optimum dye removal efficacy of 93.8 percent. Adsorption equilibrium for methyl orange aligned closely with the Langmuir isotherm model, achieving a correlation coefficient of 0.999. Calculated thermodynamic parameters confirmed that the adsorption process is both spontaneous and endothermic, indicating the material's viability for treating industrial dye effluents.
Textile manufacturing produces wastewater loaded with synthetic dyes that require effective treatment prior to release. Demonstrating that heat-treated natural clay minerals can efficiently capture dyes like methyl orange provides a technical basis for developing accessible, mineral-based remediation options. Understanding the spontaneous nature and capacity of such clays helps environmental engineers evaluate practical alternatives for industrial effluent purification.
This work is at an early experimental stage, relying on laboratory-scale batch adsorption tests and standard characterisation techniques. It could enable the development of low-cost mineral adsorbents for industrial wastewater operators and textile manufacturers seeking to capture methyl orange effluent. Progression toward commercial use will require further testing on real industrial wastewater mixtures, scaling studies, and evaluations of regeneration efficiency.
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In this study, Montmorillonite clay was thermally activated and used as an adsorbent for the removal of methylene blue dye in aqueous solution. The thermally activated clay was characterized using SEM, TGA, XRF, XRD, and FT-IR techniques. FTIR spectra showed the presence of different peaks at 1015.55cm-1 indicative of stretching vibrations for Si-O groups. The band at 492.05 and 479.91cm-1 are due to the Al-O-Si and Si-O-Si bending vibrations; also, the band at 551.90cm-1 was assigned to the couple Al-O and Si-O out of plane vibrations. SEM showed a significant particle size reduction, irregular spherical shape, partially broken and flake-like surface morphology. XRF showed the percentage concentration of silicon dioxide in montmorillonite (58.032%), while Al2O3 is 15.888%. XRD also showed the average particle size of 40.42nm. TGA showed high mass loss at a temperature 100 -250◦C, and smaller mass loss at the range of 580-650◦C. The thermally activated montmorillonite clay demonstrated good dye removal properties with optimum efficacy of 93.8%, for the montmorillonite.Thermodynamic parameters, such as ΔGo, ΔHo and ΔSo were also calculated. Kinetics data were tested by applying isotherm models: Langmuir and Freundlich.The methyl orange dye adsorption of montmorillonite was best fitted with Langmuir model (R2= 0.999). The thermodynamic data computed show that the process of the dye adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic. This shows that the thermally activated montmorillonite clay could serve as a suitable wastewater treatment material for methyl orange dye in textile industry.
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DOI: 10.4314/dujopas.v11i1d.27
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