Carbon Black: A Good Adsorbent for Triclosan Removal from Water

Industrial grade carbon black was pretreated and used for adsorption of triclosan (TCS) in water, and its adsorption performance was investigated by static adsorption experiments and fixed bed adsorption experiments. The effects of pH and temperature on the adsorption capacity were investigated and the adsorption performance of carbon black and activated carbon on TCS was compared. As the pH or temperature decreased, the adsorption of TCS by carbon black increased. Carbon black had a maximum adsorption capacity of 18.62 mg/g on TCS, which was somewhat lower than the activated carbon. Furthermore, the breakthrough time increased with increasing bed height, decreasing flow rate and decreasing initial TCS concentration in the fixed bed adsorption studies. The breakthrough time was 14.33 days at a bed depth of 4.2 mm, a flow rate of 2 mL/min, and an initial TCS concentration of 0.5 mg/L TCS. The model from The Bed Depth Service Time (BDST) was well-fitting.

Automated summary

This study investigated the adsorption performance of industrial grade carbon black on triclosan (TCS) in water through experiments. It was found that carbon black had a certain adsorption capacity, although lower than activated carbon. The breakthrough time in the fixed bed adsorption experiments was affected by bed height, flow rate, and initial TCS concentration.