I

Boleslaw Ludwik Dunks'

The Kosciuszko Foundation
New York City I Surfme Area of Activated Charcoal
by Langmuir Adsorption Isotherm

The study of the Langmuir adsorption activit,y of 0.1, is iudependeut 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 sumcd that molecules of such acids, on the charcoal sur-
relevant dat,a 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
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 he expressed as:
C/X = a + bC (1)

C conccntratim ol xcctic acid solution, in inoles/liter,

=
which is in dynamic oquilibrium with acctic acid ad- I 2 3 " l ~ - ' r n o l e ~ / lC
i,~~
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 oaivoted charcoal with respect to the equilibrium concentro-
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 lay$rs. . The cross-section of the acids is
a = constant; its units are the same as those of C/X,
b = constant; its units are g/male.
known to be 21 A* (5). The foregoing information,
and the experimentally determined constant b of the
Figure 1 shows a plot of X with respect to C, for Langrnuir isotherm, permits then an estimation of the
room temperature, with "Norit A" charcoal used as an specific area, S:
adsorbent. The experimental techniques were similar S = (l/b) x N x 21 x 10- meters)' (4)
to those outlined in various physical chemistry labora-
tory manuals (1). where N stands for the Avogadro number.
Figure 2 shows a plot of C / X values with rcsprxt to Example:
C. The straight line, drawn according to the linear rc- The reciprocal of thcslopc of the plot in Figure 2 is
gression method, fits the data. Hence it can be in- l/b = AC/A(C/X) = 5.33 X 10-Smolo/g
ferred that the acetic acid molecules, within t,he indi-
cated concentration range, form a monomolecular layer Hence :
on the surface of charcoal. S = 5.33 X lo-' (molmlg)x 6.023 x 1023 (molecules/male) x
The constants a and b of the Langmuir isotherm rep- 21 X (mP/molecule)
= 6.74 x 10' m2/g
resent the intercept and the slope respectively, of the
line drawn in Figure 2.
The isotherm implies that as the values of C become
C
X
-. I I I I I
larger, the contribution of the constant a to the value of --
4
lkter
C / X becomes negligibly small. Thus: 110 -
lim C/X = bC (2) -
Cancellation of C terms, and taking the recriprocal of 90 -
equation (2), gives - -
am x = x,,, = ~/b (3) 70 - -
The X,,, denotes the maximum capacity, in moles of -
acetic acid, which can be held by one gram of charcoal as -
a monomolecular layer.
According to Hansen and Craig ($), the adsorption by -
nonporous carbons of various aliphatic normal mono- -
carboxylic acids from their aqueous solutions, up to an
1 2 3 xlo~'maler/lit.r C
Present address, U. S. Naval Radiological Defense Labor*
tory, San Francisco 24, California. Figure 2. The Longmuir isotherm of acetic odd adsorbed on "Norit A,"

Volume 38, Number 7, July 196 1 / 357

 The above result is in close agreement with the mean
surface area of 708 m v 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 a t 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
estimat,e certain dimensions of different substances, pro-
viding certain limitations to the activity are observed.
Thus the purpose of the experiment might he 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 thc Langmuir isotherm holds, the
358 / Journal o f Chemical Educafion
equation for finding the dimension, I), of nnot.her suh-
stance, using acetic acid as reference, is:
where ba and bD are the relevant constants (in g/mole)
of the Langmuir isotherm, determined under identical
experimental conditions, for the acetic acid and anot,her
substance, respectively.
Literature Cited
(1) T,~VINGSTON, ROBERT,"Phy~icoChwnicd Experiments," 3rd
ed., The Macmillan Co., New York, 1957, pp. 257-9;
I)ANIEI.S, FARRINGTON, ET AL., "Experimental Physical
Chemistry," 5th cd., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York,
1956. OD. 226-7: and STEINBACA.0'M'o F.. AND ICING.
211 (1954).
(3) RUTGER~, A. G., "Physical Chemistry," Interscience Pub-
lishers, Inc., New York, 1954, p. 27; MOORE, WALTER J..
"Physical Chemistry," 2nd cd., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Engle-
wood Clifls, N. J., 1955, p. 510; and GLASSTONE, SAMUEL,
"Tho Elements of Phgsicd Chemistry," D. Van h'ostrand
Co., Ine., New Yark, 1946, p. 556.
(4) BRIINAUER, S., ET AL., J . Am. Chern. Sor., 60, 309 (1938).