The preparation in inorganic material different from metallic niobium and its effect onto adsorption process of the cetyl trimethylammonium bromide CTABr is reported. The inorganic materials are studied niobium oxide hydrous and niobium phosphate hydrous. The niobium oxide hydrous were obtained by homogeneous solution precipitation method with thermal decomposition of (NH4)2CO3 at 45 ºC and 90 ºC .The niobium phosphate hydrous were prepared using of metallic niobium dilution in a mixture of fluoridric/nitric (10:1) and after phosphoric acid addition. Through the BET method and the SEM technique it was verified that the material suffer no significant change in the physical characteristics. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms showed better result to surfactant CTABr adsorption using the material prepared at 90 ºC, according to Langmuir model with maximum adsorption capacity of 14.13 mg.g-1.
niobium hydrous oxide; Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms; CTABr surfactant