Kabatas, Melike BurcuCetinkaya, Sevil2025-01-212025-01-2120221380-22241573-4854https://doi.org/10.1007/s10934-022-01249-7https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12587/25267Highly porous carbons (PCs) were successfully developed through KOH chemical activation process from petroleum asphaltene for the efficient removal of pharmaceutical compounds (paracetamol and salicylic acid) from aqueous solution. The influences of activation temperature and the mixing types in chemical activation on the properties of the resulting PCs were investigated in detail by SEM, XRD, TGA, Raman, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and CHNS elemental analyses. The PC with an extremely high surface area (2470 m(2)/g) was obtained by the impregnation method without modifier at an activation temperature of 850 degrees C. Adsorption kinetics was investigated with three kinetic models called the pseudo-first-order, the pseudo-second-order, and the intra-particle diffusion models, besides the adsorption equilibrium was analyzed using three widely used isotherm equations (Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin). The pseudo-second-order model was the best compatible with the experimental data for both organic compounds. This PC exhibited a high paracetamol adsorption capacity of 476.2 mg/g and a salicylic adsorption capacity of 500.0 mg/g in water. Thermodynamic analyzes confirmed that the adsorption was an exothermic process (Delta H-0 = - 18.63 kJ/mol) for paracetamol and an endothermic process (Delta H-0 = 53.96 kJ/mol) for salicylic acid. The linearized Freundlich and Langmuir models fitted the equilibrium data better than the others for paracetamol and salicylic acid, respectively.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessAsphaltene; Porous carbon; Chemical activation; Adsorption; PharmaceuticalArticle2941211122410.1007/s10934-022-01249-72-s2.0-85128326616Q2WOS:000784053500001Q2