The iron-pillared bentonite (Fe-Ben) was prepared by ion-exchange using the natural bentonite (GZ-Ben) from Gaozhou, China, at room temperature without calcination. Both Fe-Ben and GZ-Ben were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N-2 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. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.