Evaluation of Dye Sorption of Reinforced Zeolite Esparto Fiber

Rising concern about environmental issues has promoted the textile industry to investigate appropriate environmentally friendly treatment technology. Effluent aqueous waste containing dye compounds causes serious problems. Removal of dyes from the dye-containing effluents is currently based on a wide variety of physicochemical processes. The search for alternative and innovative wastewater treatment techniques has focussed on the use of biological materials. Activated carbon, zeolite and diatomite have been used as efficient methods for adsorption. For the first time, this paper reports on the use of reinforced zeolite esparto fiber as a cheaper alternative for the removal and absorbency of reactive dyes from aqueous solution. Reinforced zeolite esparto fibers were synthesized from cellulose esparto fibers pretreated with NaOH and preformed zeolite powders. Deposition of zeolite onto esparto fiber was made at fixed conditions of treatment and drying. Several techniques, such as infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, were used to characterize these materials. The obtained materials were treated with solution of reactive dyes in different conditions to evaluate their sorption capacities. This uptake from aqueous solution was found to be influenced by pH of the solution, temperature, salt quantity and initial dye concentration. Sorption of reinforced zeolite cellulosic esparto fibers increased as the initial dye concentration increased in the solution. Maximum absorption capacity for reinforced zeolite esparto fiber at equilibrium was evaluated with variation of pH, temperature and salts quantities. Equilibrium data fitted very well to the Langmuir model in the studied concentrations. The sorption data were found to follow the second-order kinetic model with r2 of 0.97.