Application of a single model to study the adsorption kinetics of prednisolone on six carbonaceous materials

The knowledge of the adsorption processes of nonelectrolytes from liquid solution on solid materials involves the study of their kinetic and equilibrium aspects as well as the understanding of their thermodynamic functions. However, in most published papers adsorption isotherms are analyzed by using the Giles classification and other proposed equations which are either empirical or based on kinetic or thermodynamic criteria. Our opinion is that both the kinetic and the equilibrium studies must be complementary and that, in general, equations describing the adsorption isotherms come from the kinetic laws governing the different partial processes which determine the global process. These kinetic laws may be derived from single models. In this paper a single model is proposed, which makes it possible to establish a kinetic law satisfactorily fitting a great number of C (concentration) vs t (time) isotherms. This model has been applied to study the adsorption process of prednisolone by six carbonaceous materials from ethanol solution, the specific adsorption rate, and the activation thermodynamic functions being calculated. The results obtained have also been used to analyze the influence of the intraparticle diffusion on the kinetics of the process.