Equilibrium and Kinetic Study of Reactive Dye Brilliant Red HE-3B Adsorption by Activated Charcoal

Daniela Suteu* and Doina Bilba
Department of Analytical Chemistry, “Gh.Asachi”, Technical University of Iasi, Bl. D. Mangeron, 71A Iassi, 700050, Romania
E-mail: dsuteu@ch.tuiasi.ro; danasuteu@go.ro

Abstract
The commercially powdered activated charcoal was used for the sorption of reactive dye Brilliant Red HE-3B from aqueous solutions. The effect of solution pH, initial dye concentration, temperature and sorption time on dye removal was studied. The equilibrium sorption isotherms have been analysed by the linear, Freundlich and Langmuir models. The Langmuir isotherms have the highest correlation coefficients. The apparent thermodynamic parameters were calculated and the obtained values support the conclusion that the reactive dye molecules sorbs by entropy-driven, endothermic process. The kinetic of the sorption was analysed using the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models. The data showed that the second-order equation was the more appropriate, which indicate that the intraparticle diffusion is the rate limiting factor.

Key words: sorption, activated charcoal, reactive dye, equilibrium, kinetic