Asian Journal of Physical and Chemical Sciences

Various experimental design methods are widely used in various fields including science, social and educational sciences. The use of orthogonal arrays in fractional factorial designs are efficient. For this purpose, in this study, the adsorption performance of diatomite for Maxilon Yellow 4GL as a model basic dye from aqueous solution was optimized using Taguchi experimental design methodology. L₂₇ (3⁴) orthogonal array was used to optimize the dye adsorption by the diatomite. The selected factors and their levels were dye concentration, dosage of adsorbent, solution pH, and temperature. The predicted dye adsorption capacity for diatomite from Taguchi design was obtained as 0.084 mmol g^-1 under optimized adsorption conditions. The diatomite (D), Maxilon Yellow 4GL (MY) and Maxilon Yellow 4GL adsorbed diatomite (MY-D) were characterized by SEM, FTIR-ATR, TGA and BET surface area analysis.