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Abstract
The potential of activated carbons--powdered (PAC) and granular (GAC), for the adsorption
of acrylonitrile (AN) at different initial AN concentrations (50<or=C(0)<or=500 mg/l)
from aqueous solutions was studied over the temperature range of 303-333 K. The effect
of adsorbent dosage, initial AN concentration, contact time, and the change in pH
with addition of adsorbents on adsorption was studied. The Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin,
and Redlich-Peterson (R-P) isotherm equations were used to test their fit with the
experimental data, and the model parameters were determined for different temperatures.
The Langmuir and R-P models were found to be the best to describe the equilibrium
isotherm data of AN adsorption on PAC and GAC, respectively. Error analysis also confirmed
the efficacy of the R-P isotherm to best fit the experimental data. The pseudo-second
order kinetic model best represents the kinetics of the adsorption of AN onto PAC
and GAC. Maximum adsorption capacity of PAC and GAC at optimum conditions of AN removal
(adsorbent dose approximately 20 g/l of solution, and equilibrium time approximately
5 h) was found to be 51.72 and 46.63 mg/g, respectively.