Application of chemically modified beach sand as low cost efficient adsorbent for dye removal

In the current work, beach sand (BS) and beach sand coated with polyaniline (BS/Pani) were used as an efficient green adsorbent for dye removal from aqueous solutions. Methylene blue (MB) was chosen as a test probe for the evaluation of the selected adsorbents for dye removal efficiency. The adsorption experiments were carried out in batch system and the effect of some important empirical parameters affecting adsorption processes were then investigated. The experimental data were also analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption models. Based on the correlation coefficient values obtained (R2), it was found that equilibrium data for both adsorbents fitted well with both models. Adsorption data were also examined by pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models and their respective rate constants were estimated. It was found that sorption of MB dye onto BS/Pani is fitted very well with pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Using the equilibrium concentration constants obtained at different temperatures, important thermodynamic parameters of the sorption process were calculated. It was found that the chemically modified beach sand is an effective and low cost adsorbent for dye removal from aqueous solutions.