Adsorption of nitrobenzene and orthochlorophenol on dimethyl ditallowyl montmorillonite: A microstructural and thermodynamic study

The adsorption of two different organic aromatic pollutants (nitrobenzene and orthochlorophenol) onto a commercial organoclay (dimethyl ditallowyl ammonium montmorillonite) was investigated. Adsorption was investigated over a wide range of concentrations, corresponding to 0.0016–0.24 mol/L for nitrobenzene and 0.002–0.29 mol/L for orthochlorophenol. The uptake of nitrobenzene and orthochlorophenol by the organobentonite was demonstrated to determined different processes: in the former case a partition process seemed to be favoured, while in the latter a combination of partition and adsorption onto specific sites appeared to be more reasonable.