Liquid Phase adsorption kinetics and equilibrium of toluene by novel modified-diatomite

The adsorption equilibria of toluene from aqueous solutions on natural and modified diatomite were examined atdifferent operation parameters such as ph, contact time, initial toluene concentration was evaluated and optimumexperimental conditions were identified. the surface area and morphology of the nanoparticles were characterizedby sem, bet, xrd, ftir and edx analysis. it was found that in order to obtain the highest possible removal oftoluene, the experiments can be carried out at ph 6, temperature 25?c , an agitation speed of 200 rpm, an initialtoluene concentration of 150 mg/l, a centrifugal rate of 4000 rpm, adsorbent dosage = 0.1 g and a process time of90 min. the results of this work show that the maximum percentage removal of toluene from aqueous solution inthe optimum conditions for nonmd was 96.91% (145.36 mg/g). furthermore, under same conditions, the maximumadsorption of natural diatomite was 71.45% (107.18 mg/g). both adsorption kinetic and isotherm experiments werecarried out. the experimental data showed that the adsorption follows the langmuir model and freundlich modelon natural and modified diatomite respectively. the kinetics results were found to conform well to pseudo-secondorder kinetics model with good correlation. thus, this study demonstrated that the modified diatomite could beused as potential adsorbent for removal of toluene from aqueous solution.