Cadmium telluride nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon as adsorbent for removal of sunset yellow

Adsorption is a promising technique for decolorization of effluents of textile dyeing industries but its application is limited due to requirement of high amounts of adsorbent required. The objective of this study was to assess the potential of cadmium telluride nanoparticles loaded onto activated carbon (CdTN-AC) for the removal of sunset yellow (SY) dye from aqueous solution. Adsorption studies were conducted in a batch mode varying solution pH, contact time, initial dye concentration, CdTN-AC dose, and temperature. In order to investigate the efficiency of SY adsorption on CdTN-AC, pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order. Elovich, and intra-particle diffusion kinetic models were studied. It was observed that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model fits better than other kinetic models with good correlation coefficient. Equilibrium data were fitted to the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy, entropy, activation energy, and sticking probability were also calculated. It was found that the sorption of SY onto CdTN-AC was spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The proposed adsorbent is applicable for SY removal from waste of real effluents including pea-shooter, orange drink and jelly banana with efficiency more than 97%. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.