Optimization of Simultaneous Removal of Methylene Blue, Crystal Violet, and Fuchsine from Aqueous Solutions by Magnetic NaY Zeolite Composite

In this study, the adsorbent, magnetic NaY zeolite was synthesized for simultaneous removal of three toxic cationic dyes, methylene blue, crystal violet, and fuchsine, from aqueous solutions. The influences of five dominant parameters of pH, temperature, time, initial dyes concentration, and adsorbent mass on dyes adsorption were investigated. The percentage of dye removal was mathematically described as a function of experimental parameters and was modeled through central composite design (CCD). According to the predicted experiments, optimum conditions of 10.3, 50 °C, 45 min, 10 mg L−1, and 46.2 mg, for pH, temperature, time, initial dyes concentration, and adsorbent mass were resulted, respectively. The maximum experimentally achieved dye removal percent of 98.4 ± 0.6, 98.1 ± 0.5, and 98.1 ± 0.3 were obtained, which were close to the percent of model dye removal prediction of 99.0, 98.6, and 98.4 for methylene blue, crystal violet, and fuchsine, respectively. This agreement showed that the central composite design model could ideally make an acceptable estimation of the process.