Removal of methyl orange using layered double hydroxide originated from spent acid liquor

Production of organic dyes has been constantly increasing in the last decades, hence their usage leaves a huge environmental impact usually on aquatic biota. Wastewaters carrying dis-solved dyes are toxic to all organisms existing in water, therefore such wastewater streams have to be appropriately treated before they can be released into the environment. Development of ef-fective adsorbents, which can be used in wastewater treatment, is mandatory. Another concern in the production of sorbing materials is the formation of spent acids or bases since they are com-monly used for the activation of adsorbents. Spent acid liquor produced during the activation of expanded vermiculite (EVer) is utilized as the start material for the preparation of layered double hydroxide (LDH-EVer) by the method of co-precipitation process at low supersaturation. The pre-pared adsorbent was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scan-ning electron microscopy with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Fabricated ma-terial is utilized as an adsorbent of methyl orange dye from aqueous solutions. During the experi-ments, contact time were varied and thus the rate of adsorption is determined. The obtained re-sults show a high adsorption capacity of 63 mg g-1.