The capacity of sepiolite for the removal of lead ions from aqueous solution was investigated under different experimental conditions. The Langmuir and Freundlich equations, which are in common use for describing sorption equilibrium for wastewater-treatment applications, were applied to data. The constants and correlation coefficients of these isotherm models for the present system at different conditions such as pH. temperature and particle size were calculated and compared. The equilibrium process was well described by the Langmuir isotherm model and the maximum sorption capacity was found to be 93.4 mg/g for the optimal experimental condition. The thermodynamic parameters (DeltaGdegrees, DeltaHdegrees and DeltaSdegrees) for lead sorption on the sepiolite were also determined from the temperature dependence. The influences of specific parameters such as the agitation speed, particle size and initial concentration for the kinetic studies were also examined. The sorption kinetics were tested for first order reversible, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order reaction and the rate constants of kinetic models were calculated. The best correlation coefficients were obtained using the pseudo-second order kinetic model, indicating that lead uptake process followed the pseudo-second order rate expression. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.