Removal of textile dyes from aqueous solution by conducting polymer modified clinoptilolite

In this work, clinoptilolite was modified with conducting polyaniline polymer and then the nanocomposite was used as an adsorbent for methyl orange (MO) as a model dye. Cations located in clinoptilolite structure like Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+ were exchanged with anilinium cations and then the polymerization of anilinium cations in and outside of the clinoptilolite channels resulted in the formation of polyaniline/clinoptilolite nanocomposite. The resulted nanocomposite was used for the removal of MO from aqueous solution. The effect of various factors like contact time, concentration of dye as well as the amount of adsorbent on the removal efficiency of dye was investigated. The adsorption isotherms were investigated. It was found that the equilibrium adsorption data were well described by the Langmuir isotherm model. The kinetic studies indicated that the adsorption process was controlled by pseudo-second-order equation. High adsorption capacity and low contact time as well as the low cost of modified clinoptilolite proved that it is an efficient adsorbent for the removal of MO from aqueous solutions.