Investigation of the Absorbent Properties of Magnetically Modified Sepiolite (Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4/Sepiolite) in removing Methylene Blue cationic dye from aqueous solution

Absorption by natural magnetic absorbers is a suitable method for removing color from industrial effluents, due to its low cost, high availability, lack of environmental hazards and a high degree of separation from the environment by magnetic fields. In this study, the magnetically modified natural clay Sepiolite (Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 / Sepiolite) was synthesized using the natural Sepiolite clay and nitrate salts of iron, zinc and nickel metals. The structural properties of the adsorbent synthesized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental analysis (EDX) were analyzed. The adsorption of methylene blue cationic dye was studied by the magnetically modified natural clay Sepiolite under the influence of parameters such as pH, color concentration, absorbent dose and temperature. The results showed that the maximum absorbance was obtained at pH = 10. As the temperature increased, the absorption efficiency was clearly increased. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms were used to determine the type of absorption isotherm, which shows better conformation results with Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The results were also analyzed by two kinetic models. The results of kinetic studies showed that the adsorption process follows the second-order kinetics model.