Development of Eco-friendly Adsorbent Pellets from Low Fire Clay and Potato Starch for Potential Use in Methylene Blue Removal in Aquaculture

Mesoporous clay-starch ceramic pellets have been prepared using silica-rich low fire clay and potato starch as a pore-forming agent. The ceramic pellets prepared using 30% starch, showed the highest porosity and lowest compressive strength among all the different pellets. Batch mode studies using the pellets showed higher methylene blue adsorption capacity with an increase in time and increased initial dye concentration. The adsorption capacity was found to decrease with increasing pellet dose, while pH had a negligible effect on methylene blue removal which makes them a suitable adsorbent in both acidic and basic mediums. Adsorption isotherm analysis of the process was followed by the Langmuir adsorption isotherm whereas the kinetics analysis fitted well with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. A low-cost, simple device was made from a stainless-steel wire mesh with mesoporous ceramic pellets enclosed in it, which can easily be dipped and taken out of an aquarium and can remove methylene blue from water.

Stabilizing Na-bentonite by Poly(Diallyl Dimethyl Ammonium Chloride) Adsorption

Clay minerals have been modified by polymers for different applications. The polymer addition affects not only the surface propertiesbut also the rheological properties and the stability of the clay-polymer suspension as a whole. In the current study, the electro-chemical properties of bentonite particles in presence of poly diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride (PDDACl) were investigated. Theseproperties were characterized by as zeta potential, adsorption isotherm, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and the apparent viscosityat different solid percent. The results indicated that the viscosity of the bentonite-PDDACl suspension not only increases by raising thepolymer concentration but also by increasing solids %. Adsorption of PDDACl polymer increases the positivity of bentonite surfaceas a function of polymer concentration, which could be explained mainly by electrostatic interaction of deficient metal ions at theoctahedral sheets of bentonite with the cationic head group of the polymer. The PDDACl adsorption isotherm on bentonite fits moreprobably Langmuir than Freundlich isotherm