Estimation of the adsorption energy distributions for the Jovanovic–Freundlich isotherm model with Jovanovic local behavior

Abstract

The successful design of many modern separation processes as the overloaded chromatographic separations require an accurate knowledge of the associated adsorption equilibria. It is well known that the characterization of the adsorbent heterogeneity plays an important role in the understanding of the adsorption equilibria. In a previous paper, a new Jovanovic–Freundlich isotherm model for single-component adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces was proposed. Also, the adsorption energy distributions (AEDs) corresponding to the new model for Langmuir local behavior were derived and evaluated for the specific case of the adsorption of a series of chlorinated hydrocarbons on silica gel. In the present study, the adsorption energy distributions corresponding to the Jovanovic–Freundlich model with Jovanovic local behavior are evaluated for the same set of experimental data. In order to provide a basis for comparison, adsorption energy distributions were also estimated for the given set of data via an established expectation–maximization procedure which does not assume any particular model for the overall isotherm. The results presented in these paper complement the previous findings and provide new insights into the features of the Jovanovic–Freundlich isotherm model, which could be useful both in the correlation of single-component adsorption data and in the prediction of multicomponent equilibria.