Kinetic studies on toluene removal from aqueous solutions using carbon nanotubes

Abstract

The effectiveness of Taunit-M carbon nanotubes in removing toluene from aqueous media was studied. Adsorption kinetic data were analyzed implementing the simple Weber-Morris diffusion model and very common phenomenological models (Lagergren and Ho-McKay) which simulate mass transfer processes through using formal equations for chemical kinetics. Investigating the correspondence of the experimental data to different models as regards adsorption kinetics, it can be should assumed that the toluene adsorption on the carbon nanotubes represents a two-stage process consisting of the phenomena of diffusive transfer and adsorption itself. The analysis of the temperature effect on the equilibrium sorption shows that the Gibbs free energy (ΔG°) values vary in the range typical of adsorption interactions.