PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION AND ADSORPTION APPLICATION OF SPHERICALCARBON ADSORBENTS OBTAINED FROM SULFONATED POLYMERS

Investigations of the production and steam activation of synthetic sph erical carbon adsorbents from an ion-exchange resin have been carried out. The spherical adsorbents are obtained by carbonization of a polys ulfonated cation-exchange resin containing different amounts of the su lfonic group on its surface. As a secondary process, steam activation of the carbons obtained was used, which created the possibility of for ming adsorbents with the desired surface area and pore structure. In s ome activation processes a cation catalyst was used. Heat treatment an d/or partial activation in the temperature range 873-1173 K caused bur ning of 10-70% of the initial weight of the carbon adsorbent, which le ads to formation of an active carbon adsorbent with a surface area of 400-1100 m(2) g(-1). The adsorbent obtained was used for adsorption of various volatile organic compounds from air or from aqueous solution by the dynamic head space technique, and then the adsorbed compounds w ere recovered directly by column thermodesorption (on-line) in order t o be determined chromatographically. For some of the compounds investi gated, the test of sorbent effectiveness in removing chlorinated organ ic compounds (i.e., trihalomethanes (THM) and chlorophenols) from aque ous solution was performed using solid phase extraction (SPE).