The adsorption of multinuclear phenolic compounds on activated carbon

Abstract

Pure compounds, whose structures model that of phenol-formaldehyde resins, were synthesized and their adsorption from ethanol solvent on activated carbon examined. Two series of compounds were studied, (i) those with methylene linkages substituted in only the ortho-positions relative to the phenolic hydroxyl group (the ortho-series), and (ii) those in which all para-positions together with sufficient ortho-positions were used to synthesize the compounds (the para-series). Successive coupling of phenolic units to bis- (2-hydroxyphenyl)-methane and bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-methane resulted in tetra-, hexa-, and octa-nuclear species, which are referred to as tetramer, hexamer, and octamer, respect..