In this work, adsorption of rhodamine B (RB) and acid yellow 17 (AY17) was investigated on ordered mesoporous carbon material obtained by soft-templating method with hydrochloric acid (ST-A). For comparison, the adsorption process on commercial activated carbon CWZ-22 was also carried out. The sorbents were characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms and scanning electron microscopy. Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were applied to simulate the equilibrium data of RB and AY17. Adsorption isotherm data could be better described by the Langmuir model than the Freundlich model. The adsorption kinetics of RB and AY17 on studied carbons could be well depicted by using pseudo-second-order kinetic modeling. The adsorption capacity increased with temperature increase in the range of 298–315 K. In the whole diffusion process, the intraparticle diffusion was involved, but not the whole rate-controlling step. The calculated thermodynamic parameters, including Gibbs free energy (∆G), enthalpy (∆H), and entropy (ΔS) suggested that adsorption processes of RB and AY17 on ST-A and CWZ-22 were endothermic and spontaneous.

The kinetics of photocatalytic degradation of aniline, 2-chloroaniline, and 2,6-dichloroaniline in the presence of halloysite-TiO₂ and halloysite-Fe₂O₃ nanocomposites, halloysite containing naturally dispersed TiO_2, Fe₂O₃, commercial TiO₂, P25, and α-Fe₂O₃ photocatalysts, were investigated with two approaches: the Langmuir–Hinshelwood and first-order equations. Adsorption equilibrium constants and adsorption enthalpies, photodegradation rate constants, and activation energies for photocatalytic degradation were calculated for all studied amines photodegradation. The photodegradation mechanism was proposed according to organic intermediates identified by mass spectrometry and electrophoresis methods. Based on experimental results, it can be concluded that after 300 min of irradiation, aniline, 2-chloro-, and 2,6-dichloroaniline were completely degraded in the presence of used photocatalysts. Research results allowed us to conclude that higher adsorption capacity and immobilization of TiO₂ and Fe₂O₃ on the halloysite surface in the case of halloysite-TiO₂ and halloysite-Fe₂O₃ nanocomposites significantly increases photocatalytic activity of these materials in comparison to the commercial photocatalyst: TiO₂, Fe₂O₃, and P25.

In the present work adsorption of selected phthalates from the water samples on mesoporous carbon material was investigated. Carbon material was obtained by soft-templating method in the presence of citric acid. Adsorption process of phthalates was carried out from water solution using static method with sonication for process acceleration. Phthalates extraction from water phase, after adsorption on carbon material, was carried out using solid phase microextraction method. Extracted samples were analyzed using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry method. Considering obtained experimental results it can be indicated that almost 100% of phthalates were adsorbed from water solutions. The efficiency of adsorption decreases with increasing molecular weight of phthalates.