Abstract:
In this study, an experimental and analytical study on adsorption and adsorption
kinetics of organic matters in titanium oxide (TiO₂, Degussa P25) with synthetic
wastewater was investigated. In order to understand the removal of different organic
sizes in detail molecular weight (MW) distribution of organics matters was
examined in terms of number and weight-average MW. The large MW (33950
dalton) of synthetic organic matters (SOMs) was significantly removed by TiO₂
adsorption and the slight decrease of the small MW (970 dalton) occurred with time.
A characterization method was applied to evaluate the composition of SOMs in
terms of adsorbability by adsorption of TiO₂. Several adsorption equilibrium and
batch kinetics experiments were conducted with different initial concentrations of
SOMs and different amounts of adsorbent. A binomial distribution(s) of SOM
fraction with the Freundlich coefficient (k) was obtained. The synthetic wastewater
was explained by a finite number of pseudospecies (N) identified with a Freundlich
isotherm constant (k) value. These parameters were determined by the characterization
procedure, together with ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) with the pseudospecies
number method. Prediction of adsorption isotherm and kinetics derived from a
binomial concentration distribution of the characterization procedure were in good
agreement with experimental data conducted.
