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. 2025 Apr:375:144257.
doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2025.144257. Epub 2025 Mar 3.

Enhanced PFBS adsorption via silver-impregnated activated carbon: Mechanistic insights and Thermodynamic analysis

Seyed Javad Amirfakhri  1 , Ben Zobel  2 , Michael Karsten Lilla  3 , Christopher Tomaszewski  4 , Olivia Stellpflug  5
Affiliations

Enhanced PFBS adsorption via silver-impregnated activated carbon: Mechanistic insights and Thermodynamic analysis

Seyed Javad Amirfakhri et al. Chemosphere. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of silver nanoparticle impregnation on the performance of activated carbon (AC) for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) adsorption. Using the deposition-precipitation method, three silver-impregnated activated carbon (SIAC) adsorbents were synthesized with varying silver contents: SIAC0.01 (0.15 wt%), SIAC0.1 (1.7 wt%), and SIAC1 (8.5 wt%). Among these, SIAC0.1 exhibited the highest adsorption capacity at 25 °C and was selected for detailed analysis. The adsorption mechanism of PFBS on SIAC0.1 was examined at 25, 35, and 45 °C, yielding key kinetic parameters, including reaction rate constants and activation energies. Additionally, the thermodynamic properties of the adsorption process, including ΔH≠, ΔS≠, and ΔG≠, were evaluated. The findings reveal that silver nanoparticle impregnation significantly enhances the kinetic and thermodynamic favorability of PFBS adsorption, leading to a substantial increase in adsorption capacity. This work highlights the potential of silver-impregnated activated carbon as an effective adsorbent for PFBS removal.

Keywords: Adsorption kinetics; Diffusion-chemisorption; PFAS; PFBS removal; Silver-impregnated activated carbon; Thermodynamics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Seyed Javad Amirfakhri reports financial support was provided by the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin, United States. NA If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.