Malachite green adsorption onto natural zeolite and reuse by microwave irradiation

Natural zeolite was used for the removal of malachite green (MG) from aqueous solution in batch mode and reused by microwave irradiation. The isotherm data were analyzed by the Langmuir, Freundlich, Redlich-Peterson, and Koble-Corrigan isotherm model. The better fit for the equilibrium process was Koble-Corrigan model. The kinetic studies indicated that the adsorption followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic. Thermodynamic calculations showed that the adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic process. Spent zeolite was treated by microwave irradiation and it was found that yield of regeneration was 85.8% in the case of microwave irradiated time 10 min at 160 W. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.