Abstract：In order to enhance the adsorption efficiency of trichloronitromethane (TCNM) by activated carbon, the modification method of granular activated carbon (GAC) by sodium hydroxide solution was applied. The surface physical and chemical properties of GAC before and after modification were investigated by specific surface porosity detector, scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and Boehm functional group titration method, respectively. In addition, the performance of TCNM adsorption by common GAC and modified activated carbon (NaOH-GAC) were also observed under different reaction conditions. It was shown that when the initial concentration of TCNM was 10μg/L, 87% removal was achieved by using NaOH-GAC with the addition of 0.3g/L, which was 1.71 times higher than that by common GAC. The TCNM adsorption process by GAC and NaOH-GAC could be described as three phases, which were rapid phase, slow phase and dynamic equilibrium phase, in which the equilibrium time of TCNM adsorption by GAC was 36 hours, while the time by NaOH-GAC was reduced to 6 hours. The TCNM rapid adsorption processes by GAC and NaOH-GAC were fitted with the first-order reaction kinetics model.
