The influence of chlorinated aromatics’ structure on their adsorption characteristics on activated carbon to tackle chemical spills in drinking water source

Pengfei Lin, Yuan Zhang, Xiaojian Zhang, Chao Chen, Yuefeng Xie, Irwin H. Suffet

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study focused on evaluating the efficiency of powdered activated carbon (PAC) adsorption process and tackling chlorobenzenes and chlorophenols spill in drinking water source. The adsorption kinetics and PAC’s capacities for five chlorobenzenes and three chlorophenols at drinking water contamination levels were studied in order to determine the influence of different functional groups on the adsorption behavior. The results showed that PAC adsorption could be used as an effective emergency drinking water treatment process to remove these compounds. The adsorption kinetics took 30 min to achieve nearly equilibrium and could be described by both pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order models. A mathematic relationship was developed between the pseudo first-order adsorption rate constant, k1, and the solutes’ properties including lgKow, polarizability and molecular weight. The Freundlich isotherm equation could well describe the adsorption equilibrium behaviors of chlorinated aromatics with r2 from 0.920 to 0.999. The H-bond donor/acceptor group, hydrophobicity, solubility and molecular volume were identified as important solute properties that affect the PAC adsorption capacity. These results could assist water professionals in removing chlorinated aromatics during emergency drinking water treatment.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)138-146
Number of pages9
JournalFrontiers of Environmental Science and Engineering
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Environmental Science

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