Chemisorption of methylene blue by kaolinite

Abstract

AbstractThe chemisorption of methylene blue by kaolinite crystals increased as the aqueous suspensions changed from acid to alkaline because, at high pH values, not only the basal pinacoids but the edge-faces were negatively charged. The inability to calculate acceptable specific surfaces or cation exchange capacities from the chemisorption data is discussed, with special reference to the orientation of adsorbed dye cations, the covering of more than one exchange site by a monomer or polymer, the different concentrations of exchange sites on the basal pinacoids and edge-faces respectively, the possibility that such sites occur on the tetrahedral rather than on the octahedral basal pinacoid, and the incomplete replacement of inorganic cations.