Abstract
The aim of the present work was to determine the effect of the simultaneous adsorption of lead(II)-cadmium(II), lead(II)-phenol, and cadmium(II)-phenol by activated carbon cloths (ACCs). Three commercial ACCs were characterized and tested for individual metal adsorption, and competitive adsorption experiments were carried out with the best ACC (AW1104). The specific surface areas of all ACCs were >1000 m2/g, yet only AW1104 presented a high content of acidic sites (1.0 meq/g). Competitive adsorption experiments indicate that cadmium uptake is strongly affected by the presence of lead. This can be attributed either to a more favorable hydroxyl complexation of Pb(II) (that adsorbs strongly),or to the smallest hydrated radius of the Pb(II) molecule (that more easily diffuses). On the contrary, lead uptake was not considerably decreased in the presence of an equimolar cadmium concentration, indicating that AW1104 is more selective for Pb(II) than for Cd(II). Also, the presence of phenol causes a decrease in the heavy metal adsorption capacity, especially for cadmium (40 %). The former might be due to adsorbed phenol, which creates steric hindrance for cations to adsorb on specific oxygenated groups on the ACC. On the other hand, when heavy metals adsorb on the ACC surface, they stabilize the repulsive forces on the surface of the ACC for phenol adsorption, resulting in an increase of the adsorption capacity.
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