A study on the kinetics of 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide adsorption onto nanocomposite activated carbon nanofibers containing metal oxide nanoparticles

• Pseudo-second order predicts the adsorption kinetics of activated carbon nanofibers.
• MgO and Al2O3 nanoparticles affect the rate constant of activated carbon nanofibers.
• Nanoparticles with higher specific surface area show higher rate constant and lower half-life.

This paper discusses the adsorption kinetics, namely the rate constant and the half-life of 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (2-CEES) onto activated carbon nanofibers (ACNFs) embedded with MgO and Al2O3 nanoparticles. ACNFs especially when embedded with catalytic metal oxides like MgO and Al2O3 are a very good candidate for decontaminating harmful chemicals. The results of this research shows that the pseudo-second order model predicts the adsorption kinetics of 2-CEES onto composite ACNFs embedded with MgO and Al2O3 nanoparticles. It was also found that increasing the amount of MgO and Al2O3 nanoparticles of both regular and Plus grades, increases the rate constant of the 2-CEES adsorption onto ACNFs. Moreover, the Plus grade of MgO and Al2O3 nanoparticles show higher rate constants and lower half-lives, thanks to their higher specific surface area. However, normal grade of Al2O3 nanoparticles show a higher rate constant than normal grade of MgO nanoparticles.