Enhancing the adsorption of ionic liquids onto activated carbon by the addition of inorganic salts.

ABSTRACT: Most ionic liquids (ILs) are either water soluble or present a non-negligible miscibility with water that may cause some harmful effects upon their release into the environment. Among other methods, adsorption of ILs onto activated carbon (AC) has shown to be an effective technique to remove these compounds from aqueous solutions. However, this method has proved to be viable only for hydrophobic ILs rather than for the hydrophilic that, being water soluble, have a larger tendency for contamination. In this context, an alternative approach using the salting-out ability of inorganic salts is here proposed to enhance the adsorption of hydrophilic ILs onto activated carbon. The effect of the concentrations of Na₂SO₄ on the adsorption of five ILs onto AC was investigated.

SUBMITTER: Neves CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4265388 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature