Modification of nanosized natural montmorillonite for ultrasound-enhanced adsorption of Acid Red 17

•Modification of nanosized natural montmorillonite with DTMA.•Ultrasound-enhanced adsorption of Acid Red 17 with modified clay.•The effect of operational parameters of sonocatalysis was studied.

This work aims to modify montmorillonite (MMT) via dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTMA) and investigate its ability in ultrasound (US) assisted decolorization of a polluted solution. BET surface area of MMT was increased from 19.76 to 42.57 m2/g and basal spacing of MMT structural layers was increased from 1.13 to 1.69 nm by DTMA modification. The application of DTMA–modified MMT (DTMA–MMT) and US for the decolorization of Acid Red 17 (AR17) showed that US could improve the ability of DTMA–MMT on decolorization of AR17 solution due to simultaneous adsorption and sonocatalysis. The ability of US assisted DTMA–MMT was slightly decreased with pH, the initial dye concentration and the presence of inorganic anions.