LI Jiyuan, MA Yushu, WANG Changping
(Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300384, China)

Abstract: Dyeing wastewater with high content of color chrominance was toxic and resistant to biodegradation. Sepiolite loaded with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) has a broad application prospect in the field of adsorption and decolorazation for wastewater. The adsorption of CTAB from aqueous solutions onto sepiolite via Congo red spectrophotometric method was studied, and then the adsorption principle was discussed. The results showed that the adsorbed amount of CTAB on acid-activated sepiolite was more than that on raw sepiolite; it took 30 min to reach the adsorption equilibrium, and the saturation adsorption of acid-activated sepiolite was 25 mg/g. The analysis of XRD and FTIR indicated that the surface modification of sepiolite was achieved by CTAB. CTAB molecules entered the channels of sepiolite, and enlarged a little the (110) plane spacing.

Key words: sepiolite; adsorption; CTAB; Congo Red; spectrophotometric method