Binary vapor adsorption by activated carbon

The adsorption of binary vapor mixtures has been investigated on BPL grade activated carbon. Vapor mixtures include $\text{CNCl}\text{H}{}_2\text{O}$, $\text{HCN}\text{H}{}_2\text{O}$ and $\text{HCN}\text{CNCl}$. Preadsorption of one vapor generally lowers the adsorption of the second vapor below its single vapor isotherm value. Adsorption of CNCl after pre-adsorbing HCN is greater than the adsorption of HCN after pre-adsorbing CNCl. correlating with the higher affinity coefficient observed for CNCl. The adsorption of H₂O vapor is reduced to very low levels by pre-adsorbing HCN or CNCl.