Adsorption of naphthalene onto the carbon adsorbent from waste ion exchange resin: equilibrium and kinetic characteristics

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread environmental pollutants that can result in serious health problems and genetic defects in humans. In this research, a spherical microporous carbon adsorbent (CR-1) had been obtained by carbonization and activation of the waste polysulfonated cation exchange resin. Naphthalene was adopted as a model compound to examine the adsorption effectiveness for removing PAHs from the aqueous solution by CR-1. Nonlinear isotherms models, i.e., Freundlich, Langmuir, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and Polanyi–Dubinin–Manes models were tested to fit experimental data. The adsorption equilibrium data of naphthalene on CR-1 was fitted well by the Polanyi–Dubinin–Manes model. Through both isotherm modeling and constructing “characteristic curve”, Polanyi theory was useful to describe the adsorption process of naphthalene by CR-1, providing evidence that a micropore filling phenomenon is involved. In addition, among the tested kinetic models in this study (e.g., pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order equations), the pseudo-first-order equation successfully predicted the kinetic adsorption process.