An effective functionalized moroccan bentonite: Application for a green remediation of m-cresol

An organo-clay complex was synthesised from moroccan bentonite and hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (hdtma-br) via ion-exchange reaction. the resulting hybrids were used for m-cresol removal from aqueous solutions as model of organic pollutant. structure and chemical composition of the studied clays were haracterized by means of elemental analysis,n2 adsorption,thermal analysis,(tga/dtg),x-ray diffraction (xrd) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopie (ftir). the adsorption capacities of bentonite and organo-bentonite towards m-cresol were investigated in aqueous solution in a batch system with respect to contact time and initial concentration. the influence of surfactant amount on pollutant adsorption was also estimated. pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order models were used to determine the adsorption kinetics parameters and to understand the reaction pathways. the performance and the adsorption capacity of the organo-bentonite were predicted by the langmuir and freundlich isotherms. the maximum adsorption capacity of organo-bentonite to adsorb mcresol was 17 times higher than that of natural bentonite. it was obtained with bentonite modified with an amount equivalent to 100% of cation exchange capacity (cec). © 2017.