Physical characterization of modified vermiculite and investigation of adsorptive properties toward malachite green

In this thesis, it has been investigated adsorption properties of local clay and modified three different species with regard to malachite green, which is among the important industrial contaminants in wastewaters. Malachite green has found extensive use over the world in the fish farming industry as a fungicide and disinfectant. Moreover it's also been used extensively for dying silk, wool, leather and cotton. Malachite green belongs to the group of tri penylmethane dyes and its highly cytotoxic to mamalian cells. In this study, effects of initial dye concentration, sorbent dosage, temperature and pH on the dye adsorption were investigated. Dye concentration was measured spectrophotometrically. Adsorption isotherms for all systems were plotted from experimental data and adsorption isotherms were investigated with respect to Freundlich and Langmuir models. Besides, thermodynamic parameters such as ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS° were calculated. It was found that adsorption capacities of modified adsorbents were higher than that of the unmodified adsorbent. KEYWORDS: Adsorption, adsorption isoterm, malachite green, kin