PHENOL ADSORPTION ON ACTIVATED CARBON STUDIED BY HIGH-RESOLUTION ARGON ADSORPTION AND CONTROLLED TRANSFORMATION RATE THERMAL-ANALYSIS

Controlled Transformation Rate Thermal Analysis (CTRTA) and high resol ution argon adsorption at 77 K treated by the Derivative Isotherm Summ ation (DIS) procedure were used for studying the retention mechanisms of phenol on activated carbons that are very heterogeneous adsorbents. The combination of these two techniques appears as a very powerful to ol as it allows to identify the most energetic adsorption sites for ph enol molecules on activated carbons. These sites are micropores which are filled by argon between Ln(P/Ps) = -12 to -7. Smaller and larger p ores appear less energetic. The proposed methodology could certainly b e applied to numerous adsorption systems at the solid/liquid interface .