MD simulation of organics adsorption from aqueous solution in carbon slit-like pores. Foundations of the pore blocking effect

The results of systematic studies of organics adsorption from aqueous solutions (at the neutral pH level) in a system of slit-like carbon pores having different sizes and oxygen groups located at the pore mouth are reported. Using molecular dynamics simulations (GROMACS package) the properties of adsorbent-adsorbate (benzene, phenol or paracetamol) as well as adsorbent-water systems are discussed. After the introduction of surface oxygen functionalities, adsorption of organic compounds decreases (in accordance with experimental data) and this is caused by the accumulation of water molecules at pore entrances. The pore blocking effect decreases with the diameter of slits and practically vanishes for widths larger than approx. 0.68 nm. We observed the increase in phenol adsorption with the rise in temperature. Moreover, adsorbed molecules occupy the external surface of the slit pores (the entrances) in the case of oxidized adsorbents. Among the studied molecules benzene, phenol and paracetamol prefer an almost flat orientation and with the rise in the pore width the number of molecules oriented in parallel decreases. The decrease or increase in temperature (with respect to 298 K) leads to insignificant changes of angular orientation of adsorbed molecules.

The effect of carbon surface chemical composition on the adsorption of acetanilide

The study of acetanilide adsorption-desorption performed at three temperatures (300, 310, and 320 K) and at two pH levels (7.0 and 1.5) on the series of D43/1 carbons (initial and modified with HNO3, fuming H2SO4, and gaseous NH3) is reported. Sorption data are additionally supplemented with the results of thermal analysis and calorimetric and kinetic measurements. It is shown that, generally, acetanilide adsorption at the neutral pH level is reversible (only on the more acidic carbons and at the lowest temperature does hysteresis occur due to the formation of hydrogen bonds with surface OH groups), and it decreases for the chemically modified carbons. In contrast, at the acidic pH level acetanilide adsorption is irreversible. A mechanism of irreversibility is proposed and it is shown that hysteresis is caused by the chemical reaction between the nucleophile (carbon) and the protonized acetanilide molecules. For all studied carbons, at the acidic pH level, adsorption increases and this is caused by the weakly basic character of acetanilide molecule. Adsorption results are described applying adsorbability and Dubinin-Astakhov, quasi-Freundlich and solution analogue of the Toth adsorption isotherm equations. Using the kinetic data, the effective diffusion coefficients and the energy of diffusion are calculated. It is shown that the diffusion is mainly a surface process, and the contribution of the pore diffusion increases with the rise in temperature. By applying different correlations between the parameters obtained from the theoretical description of experimental data and those characterizing the chemical composition of the studied carbons, the role of the latter in the adsorption and kinetics of acetanilide adsorption is determined.