The adsorption kinetics of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate on activated carbon. Branched-pore diffusional model revisited and comparison with other diffusional models

Abstract

The adsorption rate of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) on three commercial activated carbons (ACs) and an AC synthesized from almond shells was investigated in this study. The mechanisms controlling the overall adsorption rate of SDBS on ACs were found out by using the pore volume and surface diffusion model (PVSDM). The PVSDM showed that the intraparticle diffusion of SDBS in all ACs was mainly attributed to pore volume diffusion and surface diffusion. The surface diffusion coefficient, Ds, in all samples of ACs are influenced by the amount of surfactant adsorbed at equilibrium, qe, as well as the mean micropore width, L0. The contribution of surface diffusion to the overall intraparticle diffusion ranged from 45 to 70%, depending on the properties of AC. Moreover, the branched-pore diffusional model was revisited (BPDMR) assuming that the Fick diffusion is the only diffusion mechanism in the macropores and the diffusion in the micropores was represented by the micropore rate coefficient, KC. Besides, it was proposed that the parameter f representing the mass fraction of SDBS adsorbed on macropores, can be estimated from the textural properties of ACs. Three new strategies were proposed to analyze the experimental data using BPDMR model, and it was demonstrated that the macropore diffusivity in BPDMR is close to the molecular diffusivity of SDBS in water solution. The micropore rate constant, KC, ranged from 3.90 × 10−6 to 10.6 × 10−6 s−1 and was affected by textural characteristics of ACs. Both models predicted the global adsorption rate of SDBS on ACs satisfactorily.