Removal enhancement of basic blue 41 by brick waste from an aqueous solution

A modification of brick waste by acid or base solutions was carried out to enhance its physicochemical properties. Treating brick waste with acid did not improve the removal capacity of basic blue 41. However, treating the brick waste with base increased its removal capacity two fold. The adsorption capacity (percentage of removal) decreased from 100% to 10% when the initial concentrations of basic blue and dose of the brick waste increased from 25 to 900 mg/L. The particle size of non treated brick waste affected also the removal capacity; more dye was removed with a smaller particle diameter, at the same initial dye concentrations. The resulting experimental equilibrium data were well-represented by the Langmuir isotherm, and the kinetic data fit a pseudo-second order model well. The maximum removal of basic blue 41 dye was 60–70 mg/g.