Kinetic modeling of aldehyde adsorption rates on bare and aminopropylsilyl-modified silica gels by ultra-rapid-scanning fourier transform infrared spectrometry

Enhancements of a model capable of precisely defining rates of adsorption in terms of a Langmuir isotherm and determined from infrared and pressure data collected in the millisecond time regime are described in detail. Rates of adsorption are determined for formaldehyde and acetaldehyde exposed to bare and aminopropylsilyl-derivatized silica gel. The model fits the collected data by varying the number of adsorption sites and the adsorption and desorption rate constants and determines the best fit based on the measured IR absorbance, partial pressure, exposure backpressure, number of adsorption sites, and time. The rate of adsorption onto irregular-shaped silica gel was faster than the rate onto the corresponding spherical silica gel. Formaldehyde was adsorbed more efficiently than acetaldehyde on APS silica gel than on bare silica gel, whereas acetaldehyde was adsorbed more efficiently than formaldehyde on underivatized silica, indicating the possibility that formaldehyde is adsorbed through the formation of a Schiff base.