Absorbents based on maleic anhydride-modified cellulose fibers/diatomite for dye removal

In this work, an absorbent consisting of the maleic anhydride-modified cellulose beads combined with alkali-treated diatomite (MCDBs) was prepared in an attempt to remove basic dyes. An appropriate amount of calcium carbonate was added during the formation of MCDBs to increase the pore structure under an acidic condition. The synthesized MCDBs were characterized with FT-IR, TGA, and BET. The degree of carboxylation of MCDBs was quantified using a polyelectrolyte titration method. The removal of basic dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and methyl violet (MV) from aqueous solution was systematically investigated. The influence of pH, shaking time, and temperature on the removal process was identified. The results indicated that the MCDBs had a strong adsorption capacity toward basic dyes. The adsorption capacity increased from 51.6 to 116.6 mg/g for MB, depending on the initial concentration of the dye. A similar trend was also found for MV, i.e., adsorption increased from 30.5 to 61.1 mg/g. The experimental data fitted two kinetic models; the results demonstrated that the adsorption of MB and MV onto the MCDBs fits the pseudo-second-order model very well. The removal efficiencies of the basic dyes under the optimal conditions were up to 97.5 %. The adsorption data were also fitted using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherms, separately. It was found that the adsorption process for the basic dyes was better described by the Langmuir isotherm model.