AbstractIn this study, a novel fibrous adsorbent made by grafting 4-vinyl pyridine (4-VP) and 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) monomer mixture onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers was used for removal of Congo red (CR) in aqueous solutions by a batch equilibration technique. The influence of treatment time, pH of solution, dyes concentration, and reaction temperature on adsorbed amount was investigated. Adsorption time of 60 min. was found sufficient to reach adsorption equilibrium for CR. It was found that the adsorption isotherm of CR fits to Langmuir type isotherms. The highest adsorption capacity was found to be 11.87 mg CR per gram adsorbent. The adsorption rate of CR is much higher on the comonomers grafted PET fibers than on the ungrafted PET fibers. CR was removed 97 % when the initial dye concentration was 5 mg L-1 and 38% at 150 mg L-1 by monomers mixture grafted PET fibers. The adsorption of the dye was endothermic in nature (ΔH°=45.3 KJmol-1). It was found that the reactive fibers are stable and regenerate by acid without losing its activity.
