Ponceau S or Acid Red 112 is a widely used dye with versatile applications whose biotransformation products are toxic and is a suspected carcinogen. In the present work, magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles were synthesized by precipitation method and used for the sorption of Ponceau S from aqueous solution. The effects of parameters like contact time, pH and temperature on the adsorption capacity were studied. The adsorption isotherm studies were carried out using Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models, of which Langmuir model was found more suitable. Pseudo-second-order model fitted well with good agreement with the experimental values of qe (equilibrium adsorption capacity). The values of thermodynamic parameters like enthalpy (Delta H degrees) and entropy (Delta S degrees) were found to be 35.71 kJ/mol and 0.127 J/K/mol, respectively. The negative values of standard free energy (Delta G degrees) suggested that the adsorption process is spontaneous with the energy of activation equal to 28.58 kJ/mol. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.