Impact of surface properties of activated carbons on oxidative coupling of phenolic compounds Original Research Article

Previous studies showed that activated carbons exhibit significantly different behavior for the removal of phenolic compounds in the presence and absence of molecular oxygen. Increase in capacity under oxic conditions (presence of oxygen) as high as 2.5 fold was observed for 2-methylphenol adsorption on a bituminous coal-based activated carbon. The present study was initiated to evaluate some of the possible mechanisms of oxidative coupling of phenols that are promoted by the activated carbon surface and result in such a significant increase in capacity. In particular, acidic and basic surface functional groups and metals and metal oxide complexes that are commonly present on activated carbon surface were investigated for their role in catalyzing oxidative coupling of phenolic compounds under oxic conditions.