Removal of bisphenol A from aqueous solution by hydrophobic sorption of hemimicelles

In this work, the hydrophobic sorption of hemimicelles was proposed as an innovative method for removing bisphenol A from aqueous solution with esterified carboxyl cotton as sorbent and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide as cationic surfactant. In order to optimize the sorption process, the effect of sorbent dose, initial pH, surfactant dose, sorbate concentration, contact time and temperature was investigated in batch system. The maximum value of bisphenol A removal appeared in the pH range 4-10. The bisphenol A removal ratio came up to the maximum value beyond 12 time of surfactant/bisphenol A. The isothermal data of bisphenol A sorption conformed well to the Langmuir model and the maximum sorption capacity (Q(m)) of esterified carboxyl cotton for bisphenol A was 87.72 mg/g. The bisphenol A removal equilibrium was reached within about 4 h and the removal process could be described by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic study indicated that the bisphenol A sorption process was spontaneous and exothermic.