Modeling adsorption of liquid mixtures on porous materials

The multicomponent potential theory of adsorption (MPTA), which was previously applied to adsorption from gases, is extended onto adsorption of liquid mixtures on porous materials. In the MPTA, the adsorbed fluid is considered as an inhomogeneous liquid with thermodynamic properties that depend on the distance from the solid surface (or position in the porous space). The theory describes the two kinds of interactions present in the adsorbed fluid, i.e. the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interactions, by means of an equation of state and interaction potentials, respectively. The proposed extension of the MPTA onto liquids has been tested on experimental binary and ternary adsorption data. We show that, for the set of experimental data considered in this work, the MPTA model is capable of correlating binary adsorption equilibria. Based on binary adsorption data, the theory can then predict ternary adsorption equilibria. Good agreement with the theoretical predictions is achieved in most of the cases. Some limitations of the model are also discussed. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.