In Situ Modification of Activated Carbons by Oleic Acid under Microwave Heating to Improve Adsorptive Removal of Naphthalene in Aqueous Solutions

This study aimed to improve the adsorption capacity of activated carbon (AC) towards naphthalene (NAP) in aqueous solutions. Starch-based AC (SAC) and pulverized coal-based (PCAC) were prepared a one-pot procedure by activation with oleic acid KOH under microwave heating. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface areas reached 725.0 912.9 m2/g for situ modified SAC (O-SAC1) PCAC (O-PCAC1), respectively. ?–? bond, H-bond, hydrophobic effects directly involved NAP process. Batch data well fitted pseudo-second order kinetics Freundlich isotherm model. As compared ACs only activation, capacities method increased 16.9% 13.7%, Influences varying factors investigated column using O-SAC1 O-PCAC1. Based on breakthrough curves analysis, larger height (H), lower flow rate (Q0), initial concentration (C0) resulted longer exhaustion times both cases. Specifically, we concluded that O-PCAC1 exhibits better than given conditions. The optimized operating parameters 1 cm mL/min (Q0) 30 mg/L (C0). Finally, could be Thomas