Adsorption of Congo Red from Aqueous Solution onto Chitosan/Rectorite Composite

The chitosan/rectorite composite was prepared and characterized by XRD. The interlayer distance of rectorite was enlarged from 2.53 nm to 3.01 nm. Congo red (CR) was selected as a model anionic dye and the adsorption tests of CR onto chitosan/rectorite composite were carried out. The results showed that the CR adsorption process is dependent on pH and initial CR concentration and temperature. The maximal CR uptake by chitosan/rectorite composite was 73.8 mg g-1 in the test. Adsorption kinetics studies indicated that the sorption processes were better fitted by pseudo-second order equation.