Abstract:

Ordered mesoporous carbons CMK-3, CMK-1 coated with poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA)(CMK-3- PMMA and CMK-1-PMMA) and pristine mesoporous carbons CMK-3, CMK-1 were employed to adsorb vitamin B12(VB12) from water solution. Adsorption isotherm and kinetics of adsorption were investigated via batch experiments. It was found that the adsorption capacity of VB12 at 30, 40 and 50 °C can reach 688.2, 572.4 and 428.7 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption isotherm can be described by Langmuir model. The pseudo first- and second-order kinetic models were employed to fit the dynamic adsorption. It was found that the dynamic adsorption follows the pseudo second-order model. The thermodynamic equilibrium coefficients obtained at different temperatures were used to evaluate the thermodynamic constants ΔG⁰, ΔH⁰ and ΔS⁰. The negative value of Gibbs free energy, ΔG⁰ indicates that the adsorption occurred via a spontaneous process. The increase in the value of –ΔG⁰ with increasing temperature indicates that higher temperatures were favourable to the sorption process. The enthalpy values of ΔH⁰>40 kJ/mol(66.36 kJ/mol and 56.43 kJ/mol) for CMK-3-PMMA and CMK-1-PMMA confirm that chemisorption were involved in the adsorption process. This is consistent with the IR spectra and is another evidence for the formation of hydrogen bond between PMMA in the pore of CMK-3 and VB12.

Key words: Mesoporous carbon; VB12 adsorption; Equilibrium; Kinetics; Thermodynamics