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Phenol removal from aqueous solution by carbon xerogel

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Abstract

Carbon xerogel (CX) was used for phenol adsorption from aqueous solution. CX was synthesized by sol–gel polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde using sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) as catalyst. Then, it was dried by convective drying technique and pyrolyzed under inert atmosphere. Phenol adsorption kinetics was very fast, what was attributed to the presence of open pore structure. The kinetic studies showed that the adsorption process could be fitted to a pseudo-second-order model and the particle diffusion process is the rate-limiting step of the adsorption. The phenol removal was maximum and unaffected by pH changes when the initial pH of the phenol solution was in the range of 3–8. The optimum adsorbent dose obtained for phenol adsorption onto CX was 0.075 g/50 cm3 solution. The Langmuir model described the adsorption process better than the Freundlich isotherm model and the monolayer adsorption capacity is 32 mg g−1. Among the desorbing solutions used in this study, the most efficient desorbent was EtOH (100 %) which released about 87 % of phenol bound with the CX.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge CAPES for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica-ITA/CTA, Praça Mal. Eduardo Gomes 50, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, CEP 12228-900, Brazil

    Liana Alvares Rodrigues, Tiago Moreira Bastos Campos & Gilmar Patrocínio Thim

  2. Laboratório de materiais carbonosos, Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba, Rod. SP 306, Km 01, Santa Bárbara d′Oeste, São Paulo, 13450-971, Brazil

    Manoel Orlando Alvarez-Mendes & Aparecido dos reis Coutinho

  3. Universidade do Vale do Paraíba, Avenida Shishima Hifumi 2911 Urbanova, São José dos Campos, SP, CEP 12244-000, Brazil

    Kumiko Koibuchi Sakane

Authors
  1. Liana Alvares Rodrigues
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  2. Tiago Moreira Bastos Campos
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  3. Manoel Orlando Alvarez-Mendes
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  4. Aparecido dos reis Coutinho
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Correspondence to Liana Alvares Rodrigues.

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Rodrigues, L.A., Campos, T.M.B., Alvarez-Mendes, M.O. et al. Phenol removal from aqueous solution by carbon xerogel. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 63, 202–210 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-012-2745-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-012-2745-3

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