The iron-pillared bentonite (Fe-Ben) was prepared by ion-exchange using the natural bentonite (GZBen)
from Gaozhou, China, at room temperature without calcination. Both Fe-Ben and GZ-Ben were
characterized by X-ray diffraction,N2 adsorption and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results
show that the d(0 0 1) value and surface area of the bentonite material increased after iron pillaring. Fe-
Ben adsorbed much more Rhodamine B (RhB) than GZ-Ben, which can be ascribed to the special surface
properties and large surface area of Fe-Ben. The optimum pH value for the adsorption of RhB on Fe-Ben is
5.0. The adsorption of RhB onto Fe-Ben can be well described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model
and the intraparticle diffusion kinetic model. The adsorption isotherm of RhB onto Fe-Ben matches well
with the Langmuir model.