Concentration effects associated with the kinetics of ruthenium ions adsorption on activated charcoal

The batch kinetics of ruthenium ions adsorption on activated charcoal has been investigated over a wide range of ruthenium ions concentration (0.05–0.40 g/L) at room temperature of 23 ± 1 °C in 3 M HNO₃ solution. The adsorption process of ruthenium ions proceeds via two stages: the first stage is rather fast, followed by slower one, indicative of boundary layer and intra-particle diffusion effects respectively. The mechanism of the adsorption is predominantly diffusion and the intra-particle diffusion played a significant role in rate determining, but it was not the only main rate determining step throughout the adsorption process. Both intra-particle and boundary layer diffusion seem significant in the rate controlling step. It was also observed that the adsorption of ruthenium ions adsorption process is best accounted for using pseudo second order kinetic model and the overall rate of adsorption process appears to be controlled by more than one step, namely the external mass transfer and intra-particle diffusion mechanism. Moreover, the adsorption of ruthenium ions obeys the Freundlich and the Langmuir isotherms in the concentration range studied.