Evaluation of Performance of Animal Bone Meal as a new low cost adsorbent for the removal of a cationic dye Rhodamine B from aqueous solutions

Adsorptive removal of a cationic dye -Rhodamine B -from aqueous solutions was achieved by the use of Animal Bone Meal as a new low cost adsorbent. Adsorption of Rhodamine B was occurred by studying the effects of contact time, adsorbent amount, dye concentration and temperature. Dye adsorption equilibrium was rapidly attained after 60 min of contact time. The isotherms of adsorption data were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models. The adsorption capacity (Q(m)) obtained from the Langmuir isotherm plots was 62.11, 63.69, 64.13 and 64.95 mg/g, respectively at 303, 313, 323 and 333 K. Thermodynamic parameters such as Delta H-0 , Delta S-0 and Delta G(0) were calculated, which indicated that the adsorption was spontaneous and endothermic nature. The characteristic results and dimensionless separation factors RL showed that Animal Bone Meal can be employed as an alternative to commercial adsorbents in the removal of Rhodamine B from aqueous solution and wastewater. (C) 2012 Production and hosting by Elsevier B. V. on behalf of King Saud University.