Thermally Treated Brick Clay Particles as an Effective Adsorbent for Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate, a Powerful Industrial Surfactant

Use of surfactants has been steadily increased due to the expanding industrial sector and global population. Increased levels of surfactants in surface water require effective and economical removal methodologies, especially anionic surfactants which account for about 60% among all types of surfactants. In this respect, the study reported is on the investigation of laboratory-fired brick clay particles for adsorption of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), an anionic industrial surfactant. Characterization of the adsorbent and the confirmation of the adsorption of SDS are based on a multi-technique approach consisting of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, turbidimetry and surface charge titrations. It is determined that an excellent removal of 99% from 1.0x10 ^− 3 mol L ^− 1 solution is possible under optimized conditions of firing temperature of adsorbent, adsorbent dosage, shaking time, settling time and solution pH. Moreover, adsorption of SDS on fired brick clay is a monolayer process, as determined by the validity of the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model with a high regression coefficient.