A review on adsorption of organic pollutants on clay surface

Abstract

Adsorption method is commonly used to eliminate different pollutants, especially organic pollutants from water on adsorbents.Different types of adsorbents are used to adsorbed organic pollutants like zeolite, siliceous materials, chitosan, and activated carbon, but to limit the scope, our review focuses only on different types of clay adsorbents for the removal of organic pollutants. The clay is an efficient and low cost adsorbent that attracted the attentions of the researchers. On the other hand, organic pollutants are often detected in industrial wastewaters and mostly these are known to be highly toxic and carcinogenic in nature. This review, compiled different types of clay adsorbents and organic pollutants (dyes, pharmaceutical products, herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, oil spills, and other phenolic organic compounds). The review describes different clay adsorbents, their molecular structure and their characteristics as well as discusses the mechanisms that how organic pollutants adsorbed on the clay surface.