Mesoporous carbon xerogel material for the adsorption of model naphthenic acids: structure effect and kinetics modelling.

The study examined the preparation, characterization and the use of carbon xerogel (CX) material for the adsorption of three model naphthenic acids (NAs); such as, heptanoic acid (HPA), 5-cyclohexanepentanoic acid (CHPA), and 5-phenylvaleric acid (PVA). CX was synthesized by sol-gel method from resorcinol and formaldehyde. The characterization results showed that CX was a mesoporous material with large surface area (573 m/g) and high pore volume (1.