High performance biosorbent (Caulerpa lentillifera) for basic dye removal

The sorptions of three basic dyes, Astrazon((R)) Blue FGRL (AB), Astrazon((R)) Red GTLN (AR), and methylene blue (MB) onto green macroalga Caulerpa lentillifera were investigated. The results were compared to the sorption performance of a commercial activated carbon (CARBON). The results revealed that the alga exhibited greater sorption capacities than activated carbon for the three basic dyes investigated in this work. The sorption process for all mixture systems (ALGA/AB, ALGA/AR, ALGA/MB, CARBON/AB, CARBON/AR, and CARBON/MB) obeyed the pseudo-second order kinetic model. C. lentillifera could more rapidly sequester AR when compared with activated carbon, but was more slowly in the sorption of AB. For the sorption of MB, both ALGA and CARBON seemed to have the same sorption rate. The sorption processes were initially controlled by both film and pore-diffusion, and only were limited by pore diffusion in the later stage. The isotherms followed Langmuir model which suggested that the sorption was monolayer coverage.