Equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies on the adsorption of m-cresol onto micro- and mesoporous carbon.

Investigations were conducted in batch mode to study the adsorption behaviour of m-cresol on a porous carbon prepared from rice husk (RHAC) by varying the parameters such as agitation time, m-cresol concentration (50-300 mg/l), pH (2.5-10) and temperature (293-323 K). Studies showed that the adsorption decreased with increase in pH and temperature. The isotherm data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevic (D-R) models. The kinetic models such as pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models were selected to understand the reaction pathways and mechanism of adsorption process. The thermodynamic equilibrium coefficients obtained at different temperatures were used to evaluate the thermodynamic constants DeltaG degrees, DeltaH degrees and DeltaS degrees. The sorption process was found to be exothermic in nature (DeltaH degrees : -23.46 to -25.40 kJ/mol) with a decrease in entropy (DeltaS degrees: -19.44 to -35.87 J/(mol K)). The negative value of Gibbs free energy, DeltaG degrees indicates that the adsorption occurs via a spontaneous process. The decrease in the value of -DeltaG degrees from 17.70 to 13.54 kJ/mol with increase in pH and temperature indicates that the adsorption of m-cresol onto activated carbon is less favourable at higher temperature and pH range. The influence of mesopore and a possible mechanism of adsorption is also suggested.