Adsorption of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and o-Xylene by Carbon-Based Adsorbents

Abstract

This study explored the possibility of applying different carbon-based adsorbents for removal of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and o-xylene (BTEX) from indoor air in static and dynamic modes. To determine BTEX removal effectiveness, the approach based on solid-phase microextraction (SPME) in combination with gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used. In static mode, removal effectiveness of BTEX from indoor air using different carbon-based adsorbents (shungite, walnut shell, saxaul, apricot pits, activated charcoal, Tenax, carbon black) varied from 80% to 100%. Optimal preparation conditions for shungite-basedadsorbent are no activation and addition of NaOH at 1:0.8 ratio. Shungite-based adsorbent was not able to remove BTEX from polluted indoor air at the flow rate 300 mL/min corresponding to the linear flow rate 25 cm/s, a minimum value for most commercial air purification systems. At the flow rate 75 mL/min (6.25 cm/s), a saturation time of shungite-based adsorbent made up 368 min for benzene and 437 min for toluene. At this flow rate, BTEX adsorption capacities of the shungitebased adsorbent were 0.3, 2.1, 0.2 and 0.3 µg/g, respectively. Compared to shungite, activated charcoal allowed the complete removal of BTEX at both flow rates in the whole studied time frame. Thus, shungite-based adsorbents are not recommended for BTEX removal from air because of much greater efficiencies of classic activated charcoal adsorbents. Applied methodology based on SPME-GC-MS allowed simple, fast and inexpensive collection of data and can be recommended as the analytical tool for developing new adsorbents and systems for air purification.