Adsorption of methyl orange from aqueous solutions by calcined ZnMgAl hydrotalcite

Abstract

The calcined ZnMgAl hydrotalcite was used for degration of methyl orange (MO). The adsorbent was characterized by XRD, SEM, and FT-IR. The results reveal that the ZnMgAl layered structures were disappeared after calcining for 5 h at 500 °C, then were recovered to layer hydrotalcite structure after adsorbing MO anions. The several important affecting factors of adsorption behavior, including the initial pH value of solution, adsorbent dosage, and the initial concentration of solution, were also discussed. The adsorption kinetic processes were fitted with the equations of pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, and intraparticle diffusion, respectively, in which the pseudo-second-order equation fitting results was the better. The equilibrium isotherm of MO was described by both Langmuir and Freundlich model, but better complys with the Langmuir model (R 2 > 0.98). The possible adsorption mechanism has been presumed. The adsorption experiments indicated that the ZnMgAl hydrotalcite had good adsorption ability to methyl orange in wastewater.