Adsorption of Anionic Surfactant on Phragmites Australis: Pretreatment and Reaction Mechanisms

This paper focuses on Phragmites australis pretreated fibers which were used to improve their adsorption capacities of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecylben-zene sulfonate (SDBS) in batch system. The pretreatment of the biomass was performed using NaOH, C₂H₆O, and H₃PO₄. The obtained fibers were charac-terized and reaction mechanisms were suggested. The functional groups of the pretreated fibers were identified with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The preliminary results of the research show that fibers treated with H₃ PO₄ present the biggest amount of SDBS, adsorbed up to 72.7%, and show that the highest surfactant removal was attained at pH₂. The kinetic rate of pseudo-second-order and Brouers–Sotolongo isotherm modeling is the most appropriate to describe the present biosorption phenomenon.