Very fast sorbent for organic dyes and pollutants

The increasing use of organic compounds endangering the environment encourages search for more efficient sorbents. While crude clay minerals are effective for the adsorption of cations, modified organoclays may adsorb negative and hydrophobic molecules. In this short communication, we present a very fast adsorbing organoclay based on montmorillonite with crystal violet pre-adsorbed up to neutralization of the negative charges. Sorption of erythrosin-B and 2,4,5-trichlorophenol to such organoclay reaches equilibrium in less than a minute, whereas with activated carbon, it took tens of minutes. The pseudo second-order kinetic coefficient for the process was at least two orders of magnitude smaller for the organoclay. Because sorption kinetics is an important factor in water purification, such fast sorbent might have broad environmental applications.