Immobilization of methylene blue onto bentonite and its application in the extraction of mercury (II).

Methylene blue was immobilized onto bentonite (BNT). The modified clay (MB-BNT) was used to extract Hg(2+) at pH 6.0 yielding Hg-MB-BNT. BNT, MB-BNT and Hg-MB-BNT were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, infrared spectra, and elemental and thermogravimetric analyses. MB is suggested to be intercalated into the major phase of BNT; montmorillonite mineral (MMT), lying parallel to the aluminosilicate layers, with a capacity of 36 mequiv./100g. MB-BNT shows good stability in 0.1-1M hydrochloric or nitric acids, ammonium hydroxide, and concentrated Na(+), K(+) or NH(4)(+) chlorides or iodides. It shows good selectivity towards Hg(2+) with an extraction capacity of 37 mequiv./100g in the presence of I(-) giving rise to a ratio of MB/Hg(2+)/I(-) 1:1:3 in the clay phase. Extracted Hg(2+) could be quantitatively recovered by ammonia buffer at pH 8.5. MB-BNT was successfully applied to recover Hg(2+) from spiked natural water and cinnabar mineral samples using the optimum conditions; pH 6.0, time of stirring 10 min and 10 mL of 0.05 M NH(4)Cl/NH(4)OH at pH 8.5 as eluent.