The amine moiety has an important function in many applications, including, adsorption, catalysis, electrochemistry, chromatography, and nanocomposite materials. We developed an effective adsorbent for aqueous reactive dye removal by modifying attapulgite with an amino-terminated organosilicon (3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, AFTES). Surface properties of the APTES-modified attapulgite were characterized by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and nitrogen adsorption-desorption. We evaluated the impact of solvent, APTES concentration, water volume, reaction time, and temperature on the surface modification. NH2-attapulgite was used to remove reactive dyes in aqueous solution and showed very high adsorption rates of 99.32%, 99.67%, and 96.42% for Reactive Red 3B5, Reactive Blue KE-R and Reactive Black GR, respectively. These powerful dye removal effects were attributed to strong electrostatic interactions between reactive dyes and the grafted NH2 groups. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V.