Removal of quinoline using various particle sizes anthracite: adsorption kinetics and adsorption isotherms

This work provided an adsorption method of the removal of quinoline by using anthracite of various particle sizes. The characteristics of the adsorbents were analyzed by Camsizer XT for particle size analysis, FT-IR for functional groups, X-ray diffusion for mineralogical composition, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller for specific surface area and Barrett-Joyner-Halenda for pore size distribution. The average particle size of AC1-AC4 were 0.0342 mm, 0.1015 mm, 0.2103 mm and 0.3815 mm, respectively. The specific surface of the AC1-AC4 were 3.5 m2·g-1, 1.5 m2·g-1, 0.7 m2·g-1 and 0.1 m2·g-1 respectively. The adsorption capacity present a linear increase with the specific surface area increasing. To reveal the process of the adsorption, the adsorption kinetics and isotherms were performed. The kinetics data were analyzed by pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion equation using linearized correlation coefficient. Pseudo-second-order was found to best represent the kinetics data, which indicated that the adsorption of quinoline onto anthracite belongs to chemisorption. The equilibrium isotherms data were analyzed by Langmuir model and Freundlich model, the results indicated that the Freundlich model fit well for all the adsorption processes, which showed that the adsorption of quinoline onto anthracite belongs to endothermic reaction.