Equilibrium and kinetics study on the adsorption of perfluorooctanoic acid from aqueous solution onto powdered activated carbon

Powdered activated carbon (PAC) was applied to remove perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from the aqueous PFOA solution in this study. Contact time, adsorbent dose and temperature were analyzed as the effect factors in the adsorption reaction. The contact time of maximum PFOA uptake was around 1 h while the sorption removal efficiency increased with the PAC concentrations. And the process of adsorption increased from 303 K to 313 K and then decreased from 313 K to 323 K. Among four applied models, the experimental isotherm data were discovered to follow Langmuir isotherm model more closely. Thermodynamically, adsorption was endothermic because enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs constants were 198.5 kJ/mol, 0.709 kJ/mol/K and negative, respectively, which also indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and feasible. From kinetic analysis, the adsorption was suggested to be pseudo-second-order model. The adsorption of PFOA on the PAC was mainly controlled by particle diffusion.