Removal of Basic Fuchsin Dye by Adsorption Onto Polyacrylamide/Laponite Nanocomposite Hydrogels

A novel nanocomposite hydrogel was prepared by in situ radical polymerization of acrylamide monomers in the suspension of laponite clay without any chemical crosslinkers. Comparing with pure poly(acrylamide) hydrogel, adsorption ability toward the cationic dye was improved significantly. With the increase of laponite content, there had no obvious increase of adsorption toward basic fuchsin. With the increase of acrylamide monomer from 0.5 to 2.5 g, the adsorption toward basic fuchsin was increased from 4.62 to 24.45 mg/g. When the pH value of basic fuchsin solution was varied from 7.5 to 3.0, the adsorption toward basic fuchsin was decreased from 23.77 to 12.67 mg/g. When the temperature of dye solution was increased from 30 to 60 degrees C, the adsorption toward basic fuchsin was increased from 20.16 to 22.60 mg/g. Such material is expected to be a good adsorbent for water pollutants such as cationic dyes and treatment of these organic contaminants from wastewater.