title: Homogeneous Diffusion Solid Model as a Realistic Approach to Describe Adsorption onto Materials with Different Geometries.
abstract: In this work, the adsorption kinetics of p-nitrophenol (PNP) onto several commercial activated carbons (ACs) with different textural and geometrical characteristics was studied. For this aim, a homogeneous diffusion solid model (HDSM) was used, which does take the adsorbent shape into account. The HDSM was solved by means of the finite element method (FEM) using the commercial software COMSOL. The different kinetic patterns observed in the experiments carried out can be described by the developed model, which shows that the sharp drop of adsorption rate observed in some samples is caused by the formation of a concentration wave. The model allows one to visualize the changes in concentration taking place in both liquid and solid phases, which enables us to link the kinetic behaviour with the main features of the carbon samples.
authors.affiliation: Departamento Física Aplicada, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain. esabio@unex.es.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sabio
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Energética y de los Materiales, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zamora
authors.affiliation: Departamento Física Aplicada, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: González-García
authors.affiliation: Departamento Física Aplicada, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ledesma
authors.affiliation: Departamento Física Aplicada, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Álvarez-Murillo
authors.affiliation: Departamento Física Aplicada, Escuela de Ingenieras Industriales, Universidad de Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Román
keywords: Activated carbon; FEM; HDSM; Kinetics; PNP