Synthesis and characterization of solid-state Fe-exchanged nano-bentonite and evaluation of methyl orange adsorption.

A new adsorbent was synthesized using ion-exchange between iron salts and bentonite modified with acetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in the solid phase. Ion-exchange was performed in the solid state at a temperature of 100 °C for 2 min. Various analyses such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), porosity measurement (BET), infrared Fourier transform (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray energy diffraction (EDX), and thermal weighing (TGA) were used to characterize the synthesized nano-adsorbents.