Chemical and thermal activation of clay sample for improvement adsorption capacity of methylene blue

Abstract

In this study, the removal of methylene blue (MB) by both raw and modified clay as an abundant, cost-effective was investigated. The modification of the raw clay was done by calcination, acid treatment, and again second calcination processes. In addition, the effects of calcination temperature and acid/base concentration on the adsorption capacity of clay were investigated. The characterisation of clay was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyzes. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used. The modified clay provided significant improvements in adsorption capacity compared to the raw clay.