The adsorption of phenol over MCM-41 prepared from rice husk silica was investigated. MCM-41 material (RH-MCM-41) was synthesized using sodium silicate prepared from rice husk as a silica source and cetyltrimetylammoniumbromide (CTAB) as a surfactant with the following gel composition: 1SiO2: : : 150H2O. The obtained material was characterized by XRD and BET. RH-MCM-41 exhibits high surface area and highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous structures. The adsorption of phenol over RH-MCM-41 fit well to both Langmuir and Freundlich isothermers. A comparison of kinetic models describing the sorption of phenol has been carried out. The results show that the pseudo-second-order equation may be applied for chemisorptions processes.
