Influence of caffeic acid on the adsorption of toluene onto an organophilic zeolite

Wastewaters and polluted natural water can contain a large variety of organic substances deriving from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Hydrophobic zeolites have great potential for the removal of different organic substances and among them aromatic, chlorinated, and oxygenated compounds. In this work the influence of caffeic acid - an allelochemical representing low molecular weight natural organic matter - on the adsorption of toluene in aqueous matrix has been investigated. To accomplish this task, the adsorption of caffeic acid on ZSM-5 has been studied. Differently from toluene, whose adsorption is not significantly influenced by pH, the uptake of caffeic acid onto zeolite strongly depends on pH, the maximum saturation capacity (46 mg g-1) was obtained at pH 4, corresponding to the nonionized form of caffeic acids. Additionally, caffeic acid interacts with zeolite framework and water molecule as suggested from the shift in the apparent dissociation constant evaluated from adsorption data and confirmed by structural investigation. Competitive adsorption of binary mixture of toluene and caffeic acid in a wide concentration range shows that ZSM-5 is a selective adsorbent for Toluene, and when caffeic acid is present at high concentration (100 mg L-1) the adsorbed quantity of toluene from solution is reduced of less than 15 %.