The study of aliphatic compounds adsorption on activated carbon can be carried out from the energetic change involved in the interaction; the energy values can be determined from isotherms or by the immersion enthalpy. Vapor phase adsorption isotherms of hexane at 263 K on five activated carbons with different content of oxygenated groups and the immersion enthalpy of the activated carbons in hexane and water were determined in order to characterize the interactions in the solid-liquid system, and for calculating the hydrophobic factor of the activated carbons. The micropore volume and characteristic energy from adsorption isotherms of hexane, the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) surface area from the adsorption isotherms of N₂, and the area accessible to the hexane from the immersion enthalpy were calculated. The activated carbon with the lowest content of oxygenated groups (0.30 µmolg-¹) and the highest surface area (996 m²g-¹) had the highest hexane adsorption value: 0.27 mmol g-¹; the values for Eo were between 5650 and 6920 Jmol-¹ and for ΔHim were between -66.1 and -16.4 Jg-¹. These determinations allow us to correlate energetic parameters with the surface area and the chemical modifications that were made to the solids, where the surface hydrophobic character of the activated carbon favors the interaction.
Keywords: activated carbon; characteristic energy; energetic characterization; enthalpy of immersion; gas phase isotherm; hexane; immersion calorimetry.