comparison of pure membranes of 13X and 5A zeolite for removal of acridine orange dye from aqueous solutions

This work has been performed to test pure membranes of two zeolites 13X and 5A (molecular sieve), as effective adsorbents for the removal of cationic dye, acridine orange (AO), from aqueous solution. The membranes were performed by fast and easy method without additional reagents, the pure membrane performed with 5A we called m-5A and pure membrane performed with 13X we called m-13X. Adsorption of AO was studied in a batch system in conjunction with UV-visible analyses to determinate de efficiency of m-13X and m-5A, where both pure membranes exhibited good results. The influence of contact time on the amount of dye adsorbed onto pure membranes was investigated, it shows high reduction in the first hours of contact. The adsorption efficiency is higher using m-13X, at 18h achieve 85 %, while form-5A achieve 55 %. The mechanism of adsorption was analyzed by kinetics models: Pseudo first order and Pseudo second order, and experimental data shows a good agreement with second-order model obtained an adsorbed amount of 1.73 and 2.36 mg/g for m-5A and m-13X respectively. This study shows that m-13X is more effective adsorbent that m-5A adsorbent for removal of AO from aqueous solutions.