Exp 01

EXPERIMENT NO: 01
STUDY OF ADSORPTION OF SUBSTANCES ON CHARCOAL
1. Introduction
Adsorption is a process that occurs when a gas or liquid solute accumulates on the surface of a solid or a
liquid (adsorbent), forming a molecular or atomic film (adsorbate). The term desorption is the reverse
process. It is different from absorption, in which a substance diffuses into a liquid or solid to form a solution.
Adsorption is operative in most natural physical, biological, and chemical systems, and is widely used in
industrial applications such as oil refining, water purification.
The charcoal is produced by adding acid and steam to carbonaceous materials such as wood, coal, rye starch,
or coconut shells. The charcoal is "activated" because it is produced to have a very fine particle size. This
increases the overall surface area and adsorptive capacity of the charcoal. The use of special manufacturing
techniques results in highly porous charcoals that have surface areas of 300-2,000 square meters per gram.
These so-called active, or activated, charcoals are widely used to adsorb odorous or coloured substances
from gases or liquids. The huge surface area of activated charcoal gives it countless bonding sites. When
certain chemicals pass next to the carbon surface, they attach to the surface and are trapped.
The type of interaction between an adsorbate and a adsorbent varies widely from weak Vanderwaal’s forces
and dipole forces (e.g. physical adsorption) to strong chemical type bonding (chemical adsorption). The
degree of adsorption depends on the specific area of the solid, the equilibrium concentration of the solution,
temperature and the nature of the adsorbent and adsorbed substance. Relationships between these
quantities are called Adsorption isotherms.
The Freundlich isotherm is an empirical equation employed to describe heterogeneous sites, and has found
successful applications for many multilayer adsorption processes. Freundlich’s empirical relationship at
constant temperaturea can be expressed in the form
X
 KC 1 / n
m
Or
log10[X/m] = log10K + (1/n) log 10C
Where x/m = # of grams of adsorbate per gram of adsorbent

C = Equilibrium concentration
K and n are constants characteristics of the particular system (n<1)
Langmuir developed a theoretical relationship (derivable from kinetics or equilibrium arguments) which in
the related to monolayer adsorption at solid surfaces with fixed sites.
Monolayer adsorption is distinguished by the fact that the amounts adsorbed reaches a maximum at
moderate concentrations and then remains constant with further increasing concentration (Note: though
multilayer adsorption is usually common in physical adsorption from solutions as well as Chemisorption from
the gas phase are usually restricted to a monolayer). The Langmuir relation is most commonly applied to
Chemisorption of gases, but can be expressed in the following forms appropriate to adsorption from solution.
X C

m 1  C
Where α and β are constants for a given system.
Glassware and apparatus Chemicals

Stoppered bottles 6 Charcoal
25.00 ml pipettes 1 Acetic acid
10.00 ml pipettes 1 Sodium hydroxide
Pipette bulb 1 Phenolphthalein indicator
Watch glass 2
Funnel 3
Spatula 1
Glass rods 2
Filter papers 7
Titration flasks 2
250 ml beakers 2
125 ml beakers 2
Burettes 1
Burette stands 1
Porcelaine plates 1
Bottle of distilled water 1
Funnel stand 1
Experiment 1: Adsorption of acetic acid on charcoal

1. Clean and dry six stoppered bottles and place 1.0g of charcoal (weighed accurately to the nearest
mg) into each of 7 bottles.
2. Using pipettes add 50.00, 40.00, 30.00, 20.00, 10.00 and 5.00 ml, respectively approximately 1.0 M
acetic acid to six bottles and make up to the total volume in each to 50.00 ml with distilled water.
Flask No. Volume of 1.0 M Volume of distilled
acetic acid [ cm3] water [cm3]
1 50.00 0.00
2 40.00 10.00
3 30.00 20.00
4 20.00 30.00
5 10.00 40.00
6 5.00 45.00
3. Shake the bottles well and periodically for about 30 minutes at least.
4. Meanwhile standardize the given HAc solution using 0.5 M NaOH solution.
5. Filter the solution in each bottle through small filter paper rejecting the first few milliliters to come
through (why?) and titrate two portions of 10.00 ml of each filtrate from the 6 bottles with
standardized 0.5 M NaOH solution.
Note;
Use a fresh filter paper for each solution.
Experiment 2: Adsorption of textile dyes on charcoal
1. Dissolve 30 mg of textile dye in 1 liter of water.
2. Take 25.00 ml of the solution into a beaker and add 25 mg of activated carbon into the dye
solution and stand it for 1 hour. Carry out the experiment in duplicate while running a carbon
free control.
3. Following the contact period, remove the activated carbon by filtration and analyze the dye
concentration of the filtrate spectrophotometriacally at ______ nm.
Data Analysis
1. Tabulate your results such that the following calculations may be conveniently expressed.
Calculate
a. The initial weight of acetic acid in the first bottles from the determined strength of acid.
b. The weight of the acid in the solution in equilibrium with the adsorbent from the titration
results.
c. The weight of acetic acid adsorbed in each case x = (a-b)
d. The equilibrium concentration C in g of acid per liter from the result of (b) using 0.5 M NaOH
2. Plot log [x/m] against log C and test the reproducibility of the Freundlich isotherm. Deduce K and n.
3. Plot C/[x/m] against C and test the reproducibility of the Langmuir isotherm. Deduce α and β.
Questions
1. Calculate the percentage removal of the dye in experiment 2.
2. Explain the key differences between
a) Chemisorption
b) Physisorption processes
3. What kind of thermodynamic information could you find out by obtaining the adsorption isotherm
at different temperatures?
4. Discuss the environmental and industrial applications of activated carbon?
5. What is meant by “Iodine Number of Activated Charcoal” and explain how would you determine that?

Exp 01

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exp 01

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exp 01

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

EXPERIMENT NO: 01

STUDY OF ADSORPTION OF SUBSTANCES ON CHARCOAL

Where x/m = # of grams of adsorbate per gram of adsorbent

Glassware and apparatus Chemicals

Experiment 1: Adsorption of acetic acid on charcoal

1. Dissolve 30 mg of textile dye in 1 liter of water.

You might also like