| Abstract
| - Six activated carbon fibers (ACFs) with different chemical and physical properties wereprepared by first curing a phenolic resin-coated glass fiber, followed by activation and post-treatment. Their adsorption properties were investigated to evaluate the removal of benzene,toluene, ethylbenzene, and p-xylene (BTEX) and the chemical warfare simulants dissopropylmethyl phosponate (DIMP) and half mustard (HM) from water. The adsorption isothermsshowed that ACF SL-2 (activated with CO2/H2O at 800 °C) has a higher adsorption capacityfor BTEX, DIMP, and HM than other ACFs. This suggests that the high adsorption affinityof SL-2 is related to its higher surface area, larger average micropore size of 11.6 Å (especiallyeffective for the adsorption of DIMP), and lower oxygen content of the surface. The adsorptionisotherms are well represented by the Freundlich equation. For BTEX, the adsorptionparameters based on carbon coating showed that, in all cases, ACFs have a higher K valuethan the best available data obtained on granulated activated carbon (GAC). The adsorptionisotherms of DIMP and HM on ACFs are also presented.
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