Highly efficient removal of basic blue 41 with nanoporous silica

The adsorption characteristics of basic blue 41 from aqueous solution were investigated using nanoporous silica (NPS). NPS with an average pore diameter of 2.4 nm and a surface area of 1030 m2/g was synthesized by using nonyl phenol ethoxylated decylether (NP-10) as structure directing agent (SDA) and ethyl silicate 40% (ETS-40) under acidic condition. This adsorbent was analyzed by means of small-angle X-ray scattering, scanning electron microscopy, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm and Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy. The kinetic data reveals that the adsorption process follows the linear form of the pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption isotherm was fitted well to the Langmuir data. The monolayer adsorption capacity of adsorbent was found to be 345 mg/g.