Chemical Surface Characterization of Activated Carbons by Adsorption Excess of Probe Molecules

Activated carbons are one of the most common industrial adsorbents in liquid-phase applications. It is known that the surface groups of the activated carbon can have a significant influence on the adsorption process from the liquid phase. Therefore, it is desirable to measure surface groups on activated carbons. This opens up the possibility to use group-contribution methods to model and predict adsorption isotherms. An idea is presented to characterize the inner surface of activated carbons by three types of surface groups: aromatic, polar, and nonpolar surface groups. The amounts of these surface groups were calculated from excess adsorption isotherms of probe molecules on ten activated carbons. This lays the groundwork for further simulation studies of liquid-phase adsorption using group-contribution methods.