Kinetics of enhanced adsorption by polarization for organic pollutants on activated carbon fiber

Abstract

The adsorption kinetics for model pollutants on activated carbon fiber (ACF) by polarization was investigated in this work. Kinetics data obtained for the adsorption of these model pollutants at open-circuit, 400 mV, and -400 mV polarization were applied to the Lagergren equation, and adsorption rate constants (K_a) were determined. With the anodic polarization of 400 mV, the capacity of sodium phenoxide was increased from 0.0083 mmol/g at open-circuit to 0.18 mmol/g, and a 17-fold enhancement was achieved; however, the capacity of p-nitrophenol was decreased from 2.93 mmol/g at open-circuit to 2.65 mmol/g. With the cathodal polarization of -400 mV, the capacity of aniline was improved from 3.60 mmol/g at open-circuit to 3.88 mmol/g; however, the capacity of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate was reduced from 2.20 mmol/g at open-circuit to 1.59 mmol/g. The enhancement for electrosorption changed with dif ferent groups substituting. Anodic polarization enhances the adsorption of benzene with the electron-donating group. But whether anodic or not, cathodal polarization had less effect on the adsorption of electron-accepting aromatic compounds, and decreased the adsorption capacity of benzene-bearing donor-conjugate bridge-acceptor, while increasing its adsorption rate. Electrostatic interaction played a very important role in the electrosorption of ion-pollutants.