Adsorptive removal of erythrosine dye from aqueous solutions using used cigarette filter ash loaded with Al/ Fe oxides

Dye contamination in water is a serious environmental problem around the world. Erythrosine is a water-soluble xanthenes class of dye that widely used as colorant in many industries. Used cigarette filter ash loaded with Al/ Fe oxides was synthesized by a low-cost, simple, and environmentally benign procedure. The adsorbent was characterized by several methods including energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer Emmet and Teller (BET) analysis. Then, the potential of used cigarette filter ash loaded with Al/ Fe oxides was investigated for adsorption of erythrosine. The effect of different parameters including contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage and initial dye concentration on the removal yield was studied. The experimental data were fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model. Maximum monolayer adsorption capacity based on Langmuir isotherm is 32.68 mg g-1. The process for purifying water treatment presented here is clean and safe. Therefore, this adsorbent was considered to be applicable for managing water pollution caused by erythrosine.