The main problem of aromatic compounds in water is toxicity to the environment. The volatile aromatic compounds; benzene, toluene and ethyl benzene (BTE) are often found as contaminants in water. One of the suggested methods for these contaminants removal is adsorption process. Since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by Ijima in 1991[1], many researchers are paying their attention to CNTs due to their unique hollow tube structure. The relative large specific surface area (SSA) is another important property of CNTs which lead them to become a good candidate for gas, metal ions and organic compounds adsorption. CNTs could be used as a suitable adsorbent to remove dioxin and the removal capacity was found to be higher than activated carbon are reported by Long et al. [2]. The scope of this work is to study the adsorption capacity of aromatic compounds on CNTs. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are used as the adsorbent. The MWCNTs are also treated by chemical modification method. The treated and untreated MWCNTs are then studied for adsorption of BTE.
展开▼