Efficient anionic surfactant treatment of cork for cationic dye removal from aqueous media

Sodium dodecyl sulfate sulfate modified Algerian cork powder (SDS-ACP) with interesting biosorption capacity was prepared for dye removal from aqueous media. The decolorization performance of SDS-ACP was studied using methylene blue (MB) as a model dye. Experiments were conducted in batch sysytem. The effects of initial pH, biosorbent dose, dye concentration, contact time and temperature were investigated. The kinetic modelling study showed that the experimental data are perfectly adjustable to the pseudo-second order model, with regression coefficients close to the unity and the intraparticle diffusion is not only the key controlling-step in the biosprption process. Langmuir isotherm was the most suitable model for describing the biosorption equilibrium results, which confirm the monolayer coverage and the maximum biosorption uptake of SDS-ACP was 117mg/g. Thermodynamic parameters such as Gibbs free energy, entropy and enthalpy were also evaluated showing that the biosorption process was spontaneously feasible and exothermic in nature. The application treatment has shown that SDS-ACP is a suitable lignocellulosic-type biosorbent for the decolorization of MB-colored solutions