Investigation of Phenol Adsorption Characteristics by Chemically Treated Ganga Soil

In this study, chemically modified natural clay was employed to remove phenol from its aqueous solution. The effects of various parameters on phenol adsorption were investigated through batch adsorption in order to find out the phenol adsorption characteristics onto the surface of modified adsorbent. The adsorption of phenol was found to increase at lower solution pH and comparatively lower temperature. The adsorption was also found to increase with increase in initial concentration and contact time but decrease in adsorbent dose. The maximum adsorption capacity of 87.08 mg/g was found at a solution pH of 3, initial concentration of 100 mg/L, adsorbent dose of 1 g/L and temperature of 30 °C. The adsorption capacity was found to increase with decreasing temperature indicating exothermic nature of the adsorption process. The Adsorption characteristics was correlated by Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin isotherms at three different temperature and Langmuir isotherm exhibited a better fit to the experimental data. The kinetics of the adsorption process was also studied by using pseudo first-order, pseudo second-order, intra-particle and Elovich model at three different temperatures and concentrations. It was found that pseudo second-order kinetic was well correlated with the given experimental data. The thermodynamic study of phenol adsorption also confirmed the exothermic nature of the adsorption process.