Adsorption of a cationic dye (Safranin) by artificial cationic resins Amberlite®IRC-50: Equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic study

This paper focuses on developing an effective and commercially available adsorbent for cationic dye Safranin (SF). The cationic resin Amberlite ®IRC-50 was chose for this purpose. ®IRC-50 was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques. The adsorption was optimized under various parameters such amount of support, contact time, initial concentration, temperature, pH. Obtained results show the dye adsorption was rapid during the first few minutes and the rate of removal reached over 97% in first 60 min of adsorbent-adsorbate contact time, then leveled off at 120 min. All results have shown clearly, that ®IRC-50 surface is porous and irregular, which is favorable for an efficient adsorption of Safranin dye molecules. The adsorption modeling through kinetic models showed that the adsorption process follows a pseudo-second order model. The retention mechanism has been identified by different adsorption isotherms.