The development of chitosan-based materials as useful adsorbent polymeric matrices is an expanding field in the area of adsorption science. Although chitosan has been successfully used for the removal of dyes from aqueous solutions, no consideration is given to the removal of dyes from contaminated soils. Therefore this study focuses on the potential use of chitosan as an in situ remediation technology. The chitosan beads were used as barriers to the transport of a reactive dye (Reactive Black 5, RB5) in soil column experiments. Batch sorption experiments, kinetic and equilibrium, were performed to estimate the sorption behavior of both chitosan and soil. The chitosan beads were prepared in accordance with published literature and a synthetic soil was prepared by mixing quantities of sand, silt and clay. The synthetic soil was classified according to British Standards. Calcium chloride was used as tracer to define transport rates and other physical experimental parameters. Dye transport reaction parameters were determined by fitting dye breakthrough curves (BTCs) to the HYDRUS-1D version 4.xx software. Fourier Transform-Infra Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to reveal the sorption mechanism. The study showed that chitosan exhibited a high sorption capacity (S-max = 238 mg/g) and pseudo-first sorption rate (k(1) = 1.02 h(-1)) coupled with low swelling and increased retardation for the azo dye tested. Thus it has potential as a Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) for containment and remediation of contaminated sites. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.