Comparison of chemical and physical properties of carbon blacks for sampling and analysis of environmental pollutants

Comparison of Adsorbents Containing Carbon Nanotubes for Express Pre-Concentration of Volatile Organic Compounds from the Air Flow

New composite adsorbents including silica supports (silica, aerosilogel, and diatomite) and carbon materials (multiwall carbon nanotubes and pyrolytic carbon) have been prepared and characterized. The analytical capabilities of the produced sorbents have been evaluated by their efficiency in the express pre-concentration of volatile organic compounds (butanol and phenols) from the air stream. The prepared surface-layered adsorbents containing multiwall carbon nanotubes placed onto the surface of aerosilogel by use of the carbon vapor deposition method with preloading cobalt nanostructures as a catalyst were found significantly more efficient than traditionally used graphitic carbon-based adsorbents Carbopacks B, C, and X. Additionally, a new adsorbent composed of diatomite Porochrome-3 support coated with a pyrocarbon layer was prepared. This low surface area composited adsorbent allowed both quantitative pre-concentration of phenol and isomeric cresols from the air and their thermal desorption. The developed adsorbents provided fast pre-concentration of selected phenols with a concentration factor of 2 × 103 in 5 min and were used for gas chromatographic determination of analytes in the air at low concentration levels starting from several μg/m3 with a flame ionization detector.

Comparison of the differential isosteric adsorption enthalpies and entropies calculated from chromatographic data

The differential isosteric enthalpies, -deltaH(ads), and entropies, -deltaS(ads), of adsorption were calculated taking the retention times of the peak maxima and the centres of gravity of peaks into account and compared with the results obtained from the adsorption second virial coefficients. A mathematical link between the -deltaH(ads) and -deltaS(ads) magnitudes and experimental data was derived through the Antoine-type equation which enables the -deltaH(ads) and -deltaS(ads) magnitudes to be found from adsorption second virial coefficients, B2S, calculated on the basis of chromatographically determined adsorption isotherm data. The virial coefficients were calculated employing the values of the Tóth and Unilan equation parameters. There are no significant differences to be found between the isosteric enthalpies obtained, whereas the values of the adsorption entropies were the highest for the centre of peak gravity data.