Removal of methylene blue by mesoporous CMK-3: Kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics

In this study, the removal of methylene blue from water using mesoporous carbon CMK-3 was investigated. CMK-3 was synthesized using SBA-15 as a hard template. The obtained material was fully characterized in order to access its physico-chemical characteristics. Then CMK-3 was used to adsorb methylene blue from aqueous solutions without any further modification. The effects of different parameters that affect adsorption were studied such as pH, m/V ratio, initial dye concentration and temperature. The experimental data were best fitted by the pseudo-second kinetic model and Langmuir isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity was found to be very high (1250 mg g(-1)) and the adsorption process was found to be endothermic. In addition, the presence of electrolytes in the solution slightly affected CMK-3 adsorption capacity. The obtained results proved that CMK-3 is very efficient for methylene blue adsorption. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.