Boleslaw Lirdwik Dunicz1 Surface Area of Activated Charcoal

The Kosciuszko Foundation

New York City
by Langmuir Adsorption Isotherm

The study of the Langmuir adsorption activity of 0,1,is independent of molecular weight but
isotherm of acetic acid by activated charcoal, offered in related to the absolute activity. Hence it may be as-
a basic physical chemistry course, involves plotting the sumed that molecules of such acids, on the charcoal sur-
relevant data and finding the corresponding constants. face, would be oriented vertically in closely packed
The purpose of this paper is to suggest an interpretation
of the experimental data to make the exercise more
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meaningful for the student. This is the estimation of

the specific adsorption area of charcoal.
For the adsorption of acid from its aqueous solution,
the Langmuir isotherm can be expressed as:
C/X = a + bC (1)
where
6* =
concentration of acetic acid solution, in moles/liter,
which is in dynamic equilibrium with acetic acid ad-
sorbed on the charcoal,
X = number of moles of acetic acid adsorbed by one gram of Figure 1. Number of moles of acetic acid adsorbed by one gram of
"Norit A" activated charcoal with respect to the equilibrium concentra-
charcoal, when the solution in contact with it has the tion of aqueous acetic acid solution, at room temperature.
equilibrium concentration C; the units of X are
moles/g, where g =
gram of dry charcoal, monomolecular layers. The cross-section of the acids is
a =
constant; its units are the same as those of C/X, known to be 21 Aa (3). The foregoing information,
b constant; its units are g/mole.
—

and the experimentally determined constant b of the

Figure 1 shows a plot of X with respect to C, for Langmuir isotherm, permits then an estimation of the
room temperature, with “Norit A” charcoal used as an specific area, S:
adsorbent. The experimental techniques were similar A 10-20 (meters)2
S —
(1/6) x x 21 x (4)
to those outlined in various physical chemistry labora-
tory manuals {1). where N stands for the Avogadro number.
Figure 2 shows a plot of C/X values with respect to Example:
C. The straight line, drawn according to the linear re- The reciprocal of the slope of the plot in Figure 2 is
gression method, fits the data. Hence it can be in- \/b AC/A(C/X) 5.33 X 10"3 mole/g
— =

ferred that the acetic acid molecules, within the indi-

cated concentration range, form a monomolecular layer Hence:
on the surface of charcoal. S = 5.33 X 10_3 (moles/g) X 6.023 x 1023 (moleeules/mole) X
The constants a and b of the Langmuir isotherm rep- 21 X H)-“ (mVmolecule)
=
6.74 X 102mVg
resent the intercept and the slope respectively, of the
line drawn in Figure 2.
The isotherm implies that as the values of C become
larger, the contribution of the constant a to the value of
C/X becomes negligibly small. Thus:
lim C/X bC =
(2)
Cancellation of C terms, and taking the recriprocal of
equation (2), gives
lim X => -
\/b (3)
The XmBX denotes the maximum capacity, in moles of
acetic acid, which can be held by one gram of charcoal as
a monomolecular layer.

According to Hansen and Craig (2), the adsorption by

nonporous carbons of various aliphatic normal mono-
carboxylic acids from their aqueous solutions, up to an
1
Present address, U. S. Naval Radiological Defense Labora-
tory, San Francisco 24, California. Figure 2. The Langmuir isotherm of acetic acid adsorbed on "Norit A.”

Volume 38, Number 7, July 1961 j 357

 The above result is in close agreement with the mean
surface area of 708 m2/g of the activated charcoal dis-
tributed by the Fisher Scientific Company. Brunauer,
Emmett, and Teller (4) derived this number from ad-
sorption studies with nitrogen and other gases, using the
molecular cross-sectional areas calculated from the solid
state. The value checks also very well with the figures
of the American Norit Company, Inc., which reports
that the total internal surface of Norti A (according to
B.E.T. method, calculated from the benzene adsorption
isotherm at 20°C) usually runs between 600-700 m2/g
dry carbon.
In addition, the information contained in the work of
Hansen and Craig (2) discloses that measurement of the
charcoal surface area might offer a potential approach to
estimate certain dimensions of different substances, pro-
viding certain limitations to the activity are observed.
Thus the purpose of the experiment might be extended
to measure the dimensions of various water-soluble sub-
stances, such as oxalic, boric, arsenic, picric, or salicylic
acid, to mention but a few. Acetic acid could then be
used as a convenient reference material, since it is read-
ily available and easily handled, and its molecular cross-
section is known. If the Langmuir isotherm holds, the
358 / Journo/ of Chemical Education
equation for finding the dimension, D, of another sub-
stance, using acetic acid as reference, is:
D bD/bA x 21 A* (5)
»
are the relevant constants (in g/mole)
where bA and
of the Langmuir isotherm, determined under identical
experimental conditions, for the acetic acid and another
substance, respectively.
Literature Cited
(1) Livingston, Robert, “Physico Chemical Experiments,” 3rd
ed., The Macmillan Co., New York, 1957, pp. 257—D;
Daniels, Farrington, et al., “Experimental Physical
Chemistry,” 5th ed., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York,
1956, pp. 22(1-7; and Steinbach, Otto F., and King,
Cecil V., “Experiments in Physical Chemistry," American
Book Co., New York, 1950, p. 214.
(2) Hansen, Robert S., and Craig, Roy P., J. Phys. Chem.., 58,
211 (1054).
(3) Rutgers, A. G., “Physical Chemistry,” Interscience Pub-
lishers, Inc., New York, 1954, p. 27; Moore, Walter J.,
“Physical Chemistry,” 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Engle-
wood Cliffs, N. J., 1955, p. 510; and Gladstone, Samuel,
“The Elements of Physical Chemistry,” D. Van Nostrand
Co., Inc., New York, 1946, p. 556.
(4) Brunauer, S., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 60, 300 (1938).