Adsorption of dyes onto activated carbon cloth: using QSPRs as tools to approach adsorption mechanisms

The present study aimed to investigate the adsorption of dyes onto activated carbon cloths. Kinetics and isotherms were studied based on results of batch reactors to constitute databases for the adsorption rates and capacities of 22 commercial dyes. Added to a qualitative analysis of experimental results, quantitative structure property relationships (QSPRs) were used to determine the structural features that influence most adsorption processes. QSPRs consisted of multiple linear regressions correlating adsorption parameters with molecular connectivity indices (MCIs) as molecular descriptors. Results related to adsorption kinetics showed that the size of molecules was the significant feature, the high order MCIs involved in QSPRs indicating the influence of a critical size on adsorption rate. Improved statistical fits were obtained when the database was divided according to the chemical classes of dyes. As regards to adsorption isotherms, their particular form led to the use of saturation capacity as the adsorption parameter. By contrast with adsorption kinetics, molecular overcrowding seemed to be of less influence on adsorption equilibrium. In this case, MCIs included in the QSPR were more related to details of the molecular structure. The robustness of the QSPR assessed for azo dyes was studied for the other dyes. Although the small size of the database limited predictive ability, features relevant to the influence of the database composition on QSPRs have been highlighted.