Dyeing wastewater removal is important for the water treatment, and adsorption is an efficient treatment process. In this study, three modified bentonites, chitosan modified bentonite (CTS-Bent), hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) modified bentonite (CTAB-Bent), and both chitosan and hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide modified bentonite (CTS-CTAB-Bent) were prepared and characterized by FTIR and XRD analysis. Batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the adsorptive removal of weak acid scarlet from aqueous phase using modified bentonites under different conditions. The results show that the adsorption capacity of weak acid scarlet onto natural bentonite was low (4.9%), but higher for 1CTS-Bent and 1CTS-10CTAB-Bent. The optimal conditions for weak acid scarlet adsorption were 1% chitosan, 10% CTAB, at 80 degrees C and reaction time 2.5 h. The best removal efficiency was similar to 85%, and the adsorption capacity of weak acid scarlet was around 102.0 mg g(-1), much higher than that of commercial activated carbon (27.2 mg g(-1)). These results suggest that 1CTS-10CTAB-Bent is an excellent adsorbent for effective weak acid scarlet removal from water. The adsorption isotherms of weak acid scarlet were investigated. It was found that Langmuir and Temkin models fitted the data very well (R-2 > 0.99). (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.