Improved Adsorption Capacity of Commercially Available Activated Carbon Norit ROW 0.8 Supra with Thermal Treatment for Phenol Removal

In this study, NORIT granular activated carbon was modified by thermal treatment in order to increase the adsorption capacity of activated carbon. The treatment was done under nitrogen flow at various temperatures, and caused the amount of surface basic groups of the carbon increased significantly. Boehm titration, FTIR, pH DRIFT, N2 adsorption isotherm, DFT, SEM, and XRD were used to characterize the activated carbons. The adsorption capacity was studied by phenol adsorption in different pH of solutions. It was found that the higher the treatment temperature is, the more basic the surface of activated carbon becomes, and the more phenol is absorbed. The adsorption is generally better at pH solution above the pHpzc. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm models were used to describe the equilibria data, and the Dubinin-Raduskevich isotherm model agrees with the experimental data well.