Adsorption of EDTA on activated carbon from aqueous solutions

Abstract

In this study, the adsorption of EDTA on activated carbon from aqueous solutions has been investigated in a batch stirred cell. Experiments have been carried out to investigate the effects of temperature, EDTA concentration, pH, activated carbon mass and particle size on EDTA adsorption. The experimental results manifest that the EDTA adsorption rate increases with its concentration in the aqueous solutions. EDTA adsorption also increases with temperature. The EDTA removal from the solution increases as activated carbon mass increases. The Langmuir and Freundlich equilibrium isotherm models are found to provide a good fitting of the adsorption data, with R 2 = 0.9920 and 0.9982, respectively. The kinetic study shows that EDTA adsorption on the activated carbon is in good compliance with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters ( E a , Δ G 0, Δ H 0, Δ S 0) obtained indicate the endothermic nature of EDTA adsorption on activated carbon.