Biosorption of Commercial Dyes on Azadirachta indica Leaf Powder: A Case Study with a Basic Dye Rhodamine B

Abstract

Biosorbents, collected and prepared from nature, are most widely used for this purpose. In the present work, removal of a basic dye called Rhodamine B from aqueous solution by adsorption onto a biosorbent, Azadirachta indica (neem) leaf powder (AILP), was investigated. Removal was tested in a batch process with concentration of dye solution, AILP load, pH, temperature, and contact time as the working variables. The adsorption was favored by an acidic pH range and was best described by a second-order rate equation. The experimental data were verified by fitting into both Freundlich and Langmuir isotherms. Thermodynamically, the process was found to be exothermic accompanied by a decrease in entropy and increase in Gibbs energy as the temperature of adsorption was increased from 303 to 333 K. The effect of solution temperature, and the determination of the thermodynamic parameters of adsorption of Rhodamine B (RB) on AILP enthalpy of activation, entropy of activation, and free energy of activation, on the adsorption rates are important in understanding the adsorption mechanism. The rate and the transport/kinetic processes of dye adsorption onto the adsorbents are described by applying various kinetic adsorption models. This would lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms controlling the adsorption rate. The pseudo-second-order model was the best choice among all the kinetic models to describe the adsorption behavior of RB onto AILP, suggesting that the adsorption mechanism might be a chemisorption process. The negative value of the enthalpy change suggested that the rise in the solution temperature did not favor RB adsorption onto AILP.