Adsorption of reactive dye from an aqueous solution by chitosan: isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic analysis

The adsorption of Remazol black 13 (Reactive) dye onto chitosan in aqueous solutions was investigated. Experiments were carried out as function of contact time, initial dye concentration (100–300 mg/L), particle size (0.177, 0.384, 1.651 mm), pH (6.7–9.0), and temperature (30–60 °C). The equilibrium adsorption data of reactive dye on chitosan were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models. The maximum adsorption capacity (qm) has been found to be 91.47–130.0 mg/g. The amino group nature of the chitosan provided reasonable dye removal capability. The kinetics of reactive dye adsorption nicely followed the pseudo-first and second-order rate expression which demonstrates that intraparticle diffusion plays a significant role in the adsorption mechanism. Isotherms have also been used to obtain the thermodynamic parameters such as free energy, enthalpy and entropy of adsorption. The positive value of the enthalpy change (0.212 kJ/mol) indicated that the adsorption is endothermic process. The results indicate that chitosan is suitable as adsorbent material for adsorption of reactive dye form aqueous solutions.