The competitive adsorption of methylene-blue on to montmorillonite from binary-solution with thioflavin-t, proflavine and acridine yellow - steady-state and dynamic studies

Methylene blue (MB) has been used as a probe molecule to examine how the uptake dynamics and the equilibria between this dye and the surface of Na+- and H+- montmorillonite were affected by the presence of a second dye. To prevent spectral interference, the yellow dyes thioflavin T, TFT, proflavine, PFH, and acridine yellow, ACY, were chosen to compete with MB for the exchange sites. The MB was initially adsorbed as trimer (MB+)3 and then redistributed via collisions between clay particles until equilibrium was reached. At equilibrium in the clay/MB systems, the protonated species (MBH2+) predominated at low loadings (1-5% CEC), whereas at higher loadings the trimer (MB+)3 was the major species. The presence of the second, competing dye slowed the approach to equilibrium, significantly reduced the amount of MBH2+ formed and provided evidence for the monomeric MB+, dimeric (MB+)2, and trimeric (MB+)3 forms of MB. Moreover, the presence of PFH and ACY, which are structurally similar to MB, resulted in more dimeric character in the aggregated form of MB compared to the aggregate formed in the presence of the structurally dissimilar TFT.