Water vapor adsorption and microporous structure of carbon adsorbents. 18. Effect of surface chemistry of activated carbons on water vapor adsorption

This investigation has been devoted to a study of the chemical composition of the surfaces of activated carbons. A study has been made of the way in which changes in the surface chemistry of a series of carbons, as a result of heat treatment, affects the nature of their adsorption of water vapor. A differentiation has been made between oxygen-containing groups found on the surface of activated carbons before and after their heat treatment. It has been established that the original adsorption centers, which play a determining role in water vapor adsorption by activated carbons, comprise functional groups like strongly acidic free hydrogen ions, carboxylic and phenolic groups, situated on on the pore surface of the activated carbons. The number of these functional groups on the pore surface of the activated carbons has been correlated with the parametera ₀ (the number of original adsorption centers) in the isotherm equation for water vapor adsorption. The relative pressure corresponding to the formation of an adsorption layer on the surface of the activated carbons has been shown to depend on the number of original adsorption centers, the acidic functional groups.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1, pp. 35–40, January, 1991.