New physicochemical interpretations for Adsorption of Trichloroethylene on Activated Carbon: Steric and Energetic Interpretation using Statistical Physics Approach

Abstract

Experimental adsorption isotherms of trichloroethylene (TCE) on activated carbon at four temperatures were analyzed theoretically by a double layer with one energy established through statistical physics approach. This model contains three parameters affecting the adsorption process i.e. the number of molecules per site n, the monolayer adsorbed quantity Q₀ and the concentration at half- saturation c_1/2. In this work, we propose a steric and energetic interpretation for the different adsorption isotherms of TCE on activated carbon. We calculate also the thermodynamic functions to characterize the adsorption process such as, entropy, free energy, and internal energy as function concentration. The different parameters and the thermodynamic functions were discussed with temperature.