SBA-15 nanoporous silica was prepared and functionalized with mono-amino-sites groups via post-synthesis grafting method to develop efficient adsorbents of dyes in wastewater. The prepared materials have been characterized by XRD, SEM, N 2 adsorption-desorption, and FTIR. Adsorption of a cationic dye, malachite green, on functionalized SBA-15 was investigated under various conditions of pH (5, 6, and 7), temperature (10, 20, and 30°C), dosage of adsorbents (0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 g/l), and dye concentration (50, 100, and 150 mg/l). Maximum amount of equilibrium adsorption capacity to achieve maximum removal percentage (R%=100%), in optimum conditions (concentration of dye in solution = 100 mg/L, pH=7, dosage of adsorbent= 0/3 g/L), was estimated 333 mg/g. The adsorption performances of the materials were optimized by using Taguchi method, and then isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic properties were analyzed at optimum condition. The results showed that the overall process was fast and the kinetic was well-fitted by pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The obtained experimental data were well agreed with Langmuir model. Therefore, the maximum amount of monolayer dye adsorbed can be predicted as 650 mg/g. This study shows that the silica?based nanoporous organic–inorganic hybrid material is promising sorbent for the removal of malachite green from aquatic solutions. Key Words SBA-15, dye adsorption, Malachite green
