Removal of Acid Red 151 from aqueous solution at different dye concentrations, adsorbent doses and pH has been studied. The bentonite clay has been modified using cationic surfactants, which has been confirmed using XRD and FT-IR. analyses. Experimental result has shown that the acidic pH favours the adsorption. The adsorption isotherms are described by means of Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. The adsorption capacity has been found to be 357.14 and 416.66 mg g(-1) for the cetyldimethylbenzylanitnonium chloride-bentonite (CDBA-bent) and cetylpyridinium chloride-bentonite (CP-bent), respectively. Kinetic studies show that the adsorption followed second-order kinetics. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.