A comparison study of activated carbon and activated carbon fiber from Polyacronitrile (PAN) for aqueous mercury removal

Granular activated carbon has been investigated and used for many environmental issues. Recently, activated carbon fibers have attracted significant attention for hazardous material removal due to their unique properties rather than granular and powdered activated carbons. In this work, granular and fibrous activated carbons were produced from Polyacronitrile (PAN) granules and fibers using phosphoric acid activation at 500 C Relative internal surface area of the samples was determined by means of Iodine adsorption test. Kinetic and equilibrium studies for aqueous mercury adsorption were performed in a batch system. The effects of contact time, initial pH and initial concentration were investigated. In addition, a pseudo-first-order and a pseudo-second order models were applied to kinetic data, showing higher adsorption rate constants and consequently faster mercury adsorption in the case of activated carbon fiber. Desorption experiments were performed by HCl (0.1 N) to evaluate the amount and rate of desorption in each activated carbon type. It can be concluded that adsorption and desorption kinetics of activated carbon fiber are much favorable than granulated activated carbon due to direct connection of internal and external surface areas in it

کلیدواژه ها:

Activated Carbon ، Activated Carbon Fiber ، Adsorption ، Mercury ، Polyacronitrile