Adsorption of Chlorine by Carbons from Solutions in Carbon Tetrachloride

Department of Chemistry, Panjab University, Chandigarh-160 014

Manuscript received 21 January 1978, accepted 28 March. 1978

Adsorption of chlorine from solution in carbon tetrachloride by carbons, incuding charcoals. carbon blacks and activated carbons, at 30° is shown to be partly reversible and partly irreversible. The reversible adsorption appears to be due to surface effects while the irreversible adsorption is found to be due to chemisorption partly in substitution for hydrogen, partly by addition at the unsaturated sites and partly by fixation at some of the active sites constituted by edges, corners and discontinuities on the surface. The irreversibly held chlorine causes a considerable fall in the effective surface area particularly in the case of activated carbons. The carbon-chlorine complex is shown to have a high thermal stability. The data indicate that chlorine is chemisorbed at different sites of varying degrees of energies on placing carbons in contact with chlorine solutionin carbon tetrachloride.