The adsorption behavior of crystal violet (CV+) from aqueous solution onto raw (RB) and manganese oxide-modified (MMB) bentonite samples was investigated as a function of parameters such as initial CV+ concentration, contact time and temperature. The Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) adsorption models were applied to describe the equilibrium isotherms. The Langmuir monolayer adsorption capacities of RB and MMB were estimated as 0.32 and 1.12 mmol/g, respectively. The mean adsorption energy derived from D-R isotherm for MMB showed that the type of adsorption of dye molecules on this material may be defined as chemical adsorption. The adsorption rate was fast and more than half of the adsorbed-CV+ was removed in the first 55 min for RB and 5 min for MMB at the room temperature. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order kinetic and the intraparticle diffusion models were used to describe the kinetic data and rate constants were evaluated. The thermodynamic parameters such as Delta H, Delta S and Delta G were found 117.41 kJ/mol, 41.50J/(mol K), -5.07 kJ/mol (RB) and 21.19 kJ/mol 98.34 J/(mol K), -7.84 kJ/mol (MMB) at 295.15 K, respectively. The quite high adsorption capacity and high adsorption rate of MMB will provide an important advantage for using of this material in basic dye solution. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.