Adsorption of Reactive Red M-2BE dye from water solutions by multi-walled carbon nanotubes and activated carbon

► Multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorbents. ► Reactive Red M-2BE textile dye adsorbate. ► Kinetics was followed by Avrami fractional-order. ► The maximum adsorption capacities were 335.7 and 260.7 mg g−1 for MWCNT and PAC. ► Synthetic effluents treatment.