The adsorption equilibria of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) on two hyper-cross-linked polymer resins (NDA-99 and NDA-150) in aqueous solution were investigated at 298 K. And a coal-based granular activated carbon (AC-750) was chosen for comparison. All the adsorption equilibrium data of DMP were well fitted by the Polanyi-based isotherm modeling (Polanyi-Manes (PM) equation), and the characteristic curves of the three adsorbents were obtained. It is noteworthy that a reasonably good agreement was obtained between the combined micropore and mesopore volume of adsorbents and the corresponding adsorption volume capacity for phthalates. Compared to the granular activated carbon (AC-750), the greater adsorption performances of the two resins (NDA-99 and NDA-150) were assumed to result from their more abundant micro- and mesopore structure, where phthalates can be intensively adsorbed by pore-filling mechanism. According to the exponent b value of the PM equation, NDA-99 and NDA-150 show the more micro-and mesopore heterogeneity than AC-750. On the other hand, the functional groups on the adsorbent surfaces did not take a notable effect on the adsorption equilibria of phthalates. The theory equilibrium adsorption amounts of DEP, predicted by the specific characteristic curve of each adsorbent, agree well with the experimental ones, respectively. The characteristic curve of hyper-cross-linked polymer resins and its prediction of phthalates adsorption calculated by Polanyi-based isotherm modeling have a potential applicability for field applications.

The subject study revealed several unique properties of polymer-based zirconium phosphate (ZrP) for lead removal from waters. ZrP particles were impregnated within two porous polymers, namely, a chloromethylated polystyrene (CP) and a polystyrene cation exchange resin (D-001). Both as-prepared hybrid sorbents (designated ZrP-CP and ZrP-001, respectively) were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and a N2 adsorption-desorption test at 77K. As compared to the fresh particles, ZrP impregnated onto CP exhibits a slight increase in sorption capacity, which may result from their nanosized particles after impregnation. More attractively, ZrP-001 displays much higher sorption preference toward lead ions over calcium ions than ZrP, D-001, and ZrP-CP. Such significant phenomena is mainly attributed to the Donnan membrane effect exerted by the immobilized sulfonate groups on D-001 and further validates its potential application for enhanced removal of the toxic metal from contaminated waters.

The current study reports a potential process to selectively separate and preconcentrate tartaric acid from its simulated industrial effluent. It was achieved by sorption onto a tailored polymeric ligand exchanger. The polymeric ligand exchanger is essentially a copper(II)-bound specialty chelating polymer (denoted D-Cu). Effect of solution pH and competing sulfate on tartaric acid sorption onto D-Cu was also included in the study. Compared to a weakly basic anion exchanger D-301, D-Cu exhibits more favorable sorption of tartaric acid from aqueous media coexisting with Na2SO4 at a high level. The exhausted D-Cu was amenable to an entire regeneration by the diluted NaCl solution. Results of column sorption tests further demonstrated the feasibility of D-Cu for selective separation and preconcentration of tartaric acid from the simulated wastewater for its further recovery.

The removal of phenol from aqueous solution was examined by using a porous acrylic ester polymer (Amberlite XAD-7) as an adsorbent. Favorable phenol adsorption was observed at acidic solution pH and further increase of solution pH results in a marked decrease of adsorption capacity, and the coexisting inorganic salt NaCl exerts positive effect on the adsorption process. Adsorption isotherms of phenol were linearly correlated and found to be well represented by either the Langmuir or Freundlich isotherm model. Thermodynamic parameters such as changes in the enthalpy (△H), entropy (△S) and free energy (△G) indicate that phenol adsorption onto XAD-7 is an exothermic and spontaneous process in nature, and lower ambient temperature results in more favorable adsorption. Kinetic experiments at different initial solute concentrations were investigated and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model was successfully represented the kinetic data. Additionally, the column adsorption result showed that a complete removal of phenol from aqueous phase can be achieved by XAD-7 beads and the exhausted adsorbent was amenable to an entire regeneration by using ethanol as the regenerant. More interestingly, relatively more volume of hot water in place of ethanol can also achieve a similar result for repeated use of the adsorbent.

Removal and recovery of aromatic pollutants from water by solid adsorbents have been of considerable concern recently. Relatively limited information is available on desorption kinetics and isotherms aspects. In the present study, batch desorption experiments of loaded 4-nitrophenol on a hyper-cross-linked polymer resin NDA-701, a polymeric adsorbent Amberlite XAD-4 and a granular activated carbon GAC-1 were carried out to study the effects of reaction temperature and pore-size distribution of adsorbents. 4-Nitrophenol desorbed rapidly in the early stages, followed by a much slower release, whichwas described well by a first-order two-component four-parameter model. The adsorption and desorption equilibrium isotherms were well described by Freundlich equation and the apparent adsorption-desorption hysteresis (hysteresis index) for 4-nitrophenol followed an order as: NDA-701≈XAD-4 GAC-1. Analysis of adsorption-desorption process suggested that higher reaction temperature and larger proportion of macropore of adsorbents favoured desorption kinetic and reduced adsorption-desorption hysteresis. All the results indicated that NDA-701, with a specific bimodal property in macro-and micropore region, had excellent potential as an adsorption material for achieving high removal and recovery of 4-nitrophenol from the contaminated water. These results will also advance the understanding of the adsorption and desorption behavior of hyper-cross-linked polymer resin in the wastewater treatment systems.