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N2 Adsorption Isotherm and BET Surface Area of Polyethyleneimine-Impregnated Activated Carbon: Comparison with Virgin Activated Carbon
Chun Yang Yin,a,b Mohamed Khiereddine Aroua,b Wan Mohd Ashri Wan Daudb
b
Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, 40450, Selangor, Malaysia. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Email: yinyang@salam.uitm.edu.my
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the findings of N2 adsorption isotherm and BET surface area of polyethyleneimine (PEI) impregnated palm shell activated carbon (AC) as compared to its virgin form. PEI is a well-recognized organic-based polymer with high metal complexation capability. Three types of low molecular weight PEI distinguished by molecular number and weight, namely, Mn of 423, Mn of 600 and Mw of 1,200 were used for impregnation. The impregnation process was conducted using straightforward batch adsorption procedure with deionized water as background solution. Generally, the volume of N2 adsorbed was reduced with increased quantity of PEI impregnated on the AC. It was surmised that the type of PEI used play a essential role in the adsorbability of PEI as the maximum amount of adsorbed PEI on AC vary considerably for the different types (in terms of molecular weight/number) of PEI used. Keywords: palm shell activated carbon, polyethyleneimine, N2 adsorption isotherm, BET surface area
I. INTRODUCTION
Adsorption using activated carbon (AC) is often used in the tertiary wastewater treatment stage for polishing incoming influent before final discharge into the environment. Usage of AC for treatment of organic pollutants has been proved to be effective due to the hydrophobicity of its surface which facilitates physical adsorption via van der Waals forces. Hydrophobicity, however, relatively inhibits similar applications for metal ions in wastewater albeit the presence of some acidic surface functional groups on its surface may aid slightly in metal chemisorption via electrostatic interactions between the metal ions and surface of activated carbon rendering in mechanisms such as cation exchange (primary) and complexation (secondary). As such, recent research has focused on modification of activated carbon to enhance metal affinity and/or increase the activated carbons affinity towards a certain metal species. One method to enhance metal affinity is to impregnate AC with a chelating polymer as proven in a previous study [1]. It was shown in that study that the PEI-impregnated activated carbon (29.82 wt% PEI/AC surface saturated) significantly increased the maximum batch single adsorption capacity for Cd2+ by as much as 96% as compared to virgin activated carbon. However, this impregnation resulted in significantly reduced free surface area by approximately 97% due to clogging of pores by PEI molecules. As such, it is deemed that the next step is to optimize the impregnation process so that the metal adsorption capacity of AC can be increased to a maximum at the lowest reduction of surface area. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of amount of PEI impregnation (for three different PEI types based on their molecular numbers, Mn) on the surface characteristics of the AC.
Yogyakarta-Indonesia, 4-5th December 2007 Chemical Engineering Department , Gadjah Mada University
(1)
where qe (mg g-1) is the equilibrium adsorption capacity, C0 and Ce are the initial and equilibrium concentration (mg l-1) of PEI in solution, V (l) is the volume and M (g) is the weight of AC. The BET surface area and other physical characteristics of the samples were determined from N2 adsorption isotherm at 77 K using the N2 adsorption isotherm using ThermoQuest Sorptomatic 1990 Series analyzer. Prior to analysis, the samples were degassed at 120C for at least 24 hours.
Type of PEI
423-PEI
600-PEI
1200-PEI
Yogyakarta-Indonesia, 4-5th December 2007 Chemical Engineering Department , Gadjah Mada University
Virgin 4.76 wt% PEI/AC 8.41 wt% PEI/AC 16.68 wt% PEI/AC 29.82 wt% PEI/AC
0.8
200 150 100 50 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 Relative pressure, P/Po
(b) 600-PEI
Virgin 3.1 wt% PEI/AC 4.51 wt%PEI/AC 7.69 wt% PEI/AC 8.26 wt% PEI/AC
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Yogyakarta-Indonesia, 4-5th December 2007 Chemical Engineering Department , Gadjah Mada University
IV. CONCLUSION
Only impregnation of 423-PEI was successful in the study. It is surmised that reduction and constriction of pore size of macropores due to adsorbed 600- and 1200-PEI molecules on their walls results in creation of additional mesopores.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia for the IRPA research grant and Bravo Green Sdn Bhd, Kuching, Malaysia for generous provision of palm shell activated carbon for research purposes.
REFERENCES
[1] C. Y. Yin, M. K. Aroua and W. M. A. W. Daud. (In press). Impregnation of palm shell activated carbon with polyethyleneimine and its effects on Cd2+ adsorption. Colloids Surf. A. [2] J. W. Schurer, P. H. J. Hoedemaeker and I. Molenaar. (1977). Polyethyleneimine as tracer particle for (Immuno)
Yogyakarta-Indonesia, 4-5th December 2007 Chemical Engineering Department , Gadjah Mada University