Adsorption of volatile organic compounds on peanut shell activated carbon

The aims of this work were to prepare porous activated carbon from peanut shell by chemical activation using ZnCl2 and study its volatile organic compounds adsorption capacities. The adsorption properties of ethyl on the prepared activated carbon were experimentally determined at different temperatures. The surface textural characteristic of the activated carbon was evaluated by N-2 adsorption isotherm measurements. The average BET surface area, pore size, and micro-pore volume of the prepared activated carbon were 1025 m(2)/g, 0.70 nm, and 0.37 cm(3)/g, respectively, with narrow pore size distribution. Higher adsorption capacity of toluene on the activated carbon was observed compared to ethyl benzene and p-xylene, in particular at low vapour concentration ranges. The experimental isotherm data were also analyzed using the Langmuir, Langmuir-Freundlich, and multisite Langmuir isotherm model. The Langmuir-Freundlich and multisite Langmuir model provide the best fit for volatile organic compound adsorption isotherms. In addition, the surface and thermal properties of the activated carbon were also investigated using FT-IR, Zeta-potential, and TGA. Overall, the peanut shell activated carbon prepared in this study exhibited comparable surface properties and adsorption performance with the available commercial activated carbons and activated carbons prepared from other various sources reported in other literature.