Prediction of Adsorption Equilibrium of VOCs onto Hyper-Cross-Linked Polymeric Resin at Environmentally Relevant Temperatures and Concentrations Using Inverse Gas Chromatography

Hyper-cross-linked polymeric resin (HPR) represents a class of predominantly microporous adsorbents and has good adsorption performance toward VOCs. However, adsorption equilibrium of VOCs onto HPR are limited. In this research, a novel method for predicting adsorption capacities of VOCs on HPR at environmentally relevant temperatures and concentrations using inverse gas chromatography data was proposed. Adsorption equilibrium of six VOCs ( n -pentane, n -hexane, dichloromethane, acetone, benzene, 1, 2-dichloroethane) onto HPR in the temperature range of 403–443 K were measured by inverse gas chromatography (IGC). Adsorption capacities at environmentally relevant temperatures (293–328 K) and concentrations ( P / P s = 0.1–0.7) were predicted using Dubinin–Radushkevich (DR) equation based on Polany’s theory. Taking consideration of the swelling properties of HPR, the volume swelling ratio ( r ) was introduced and r · V micro was used instead of V micro determined by N 2 adsorption data at 77 K as the parameter q 0 (limiting micropore volume) of the DR equation. The results showed that the adsorption capacities of VOCs at environmentally relevant temperatures and concentrations can be predicted effectively using IGC data, the root-mean-square errors between the predicted and experimental data was below 9.63%. The results are meaningful because they allow accurate prediction of adsorption capacities of adsorbents more quickly and conveniently using IGC data.