INDEX

S.No
1.

Contents
OBJECTIVE

Page No

2.

INTRODUCTION

3.

THEORY

4.

APPARATUS REQUIRED

5.

PROCEDURE

6.

OBSERVATION TABLE

7.

CALCULATIONS

8.

RESULT

9.

CONCLUSION

10.

PRECAUTIONS

1
1
3
3
5
6
7
8
8

OBJECTIVE
To characterise an absorbent/catalyst and determine:
1. Bulk Density
2. Pore Volume and
3. True Density
Of a given sample of granular activated charcoal (GAC).

INTRODUCTION
Catalyst is a chemical substance that affects the rate of a chemical reaction by
altering the activation energy required for the reaction to proceed. This change
in the rate of reaction due to the participation of catalyst is called catalysis.
Unlike other reagents that participate in the chemical reaction, a catalyst is not
consumed in the reaction. A catalyst may participate in multiple chemical
transformations. Catalysts that speed the reaction are called positive catalysts.
Substances that increase the activity of catalysts are called promoters, and
substances that deactivate catalysts are called catalytic poisons.
Catalytic reaction have a low rate limiting free energy of activation than the
corresponding non catalysed reaction, resulting in higher reaction rate at the
same temperature. But there is no effect on the energy of reactants and
products.

THEORY
Catalysis is the change in rate of chemical reaction due to the participation of
substance called catalyst. A catalyst is not consumed by the reaction and it
may participate in multiple reactions at a time.
The only difference between a catalysed reaction and a non-catalysed reaction
is that the activation energy is different. There is no effect on the energy of
reactants and products. The H for the reaction is same.
Catalytic reactions occur at the fluid solid interface, thus large interfacial area
can be helpful in attaining a significant reaction rate. The area is provided by

porous structure. That is why most of the catalysts used are porous in nature.
Since the solid surface is responsible for catalytic activity, a large readily
accessible surface is desirable in a number of methods. Large active surface
area for unit volume of catalysts is achieved.
In porous catalytic particles surface reaction and diffusion are the rate
influencing factors but film mass transfer is not. Some examples of porous
catalysts are nickel used in hydrogenation of vegetable and animal oils; solid
iron (Fe) catalyst used in manufacture of ammonia from Habers process.
Platinum or alumina used in reforming of petrol.
There are two broad classes of catalysts- those which operate close to ambient
temperature, e.g. enzymes; and the man-made catalysts that operate at high
temperature.
In terms of transition state theory, the catalyst reduces the potential energy
barrier area which the reactants must pass, to form products.

Selectivity of catalyst:
The selectivity of a catalyst is its ability to direct a reaction to yield
preferentially a particular product.
For Heterogeneous catalysis the catalyst used is solid and it acts as a substrate
in a liquid or gaseous medium. Therefore the total surface area of solid has an
important effect on reaction rate. The smaller the catalyst particle size, the
larger is the surface area for a given mass of particles.

Granulated activated carbon as a catalyst:

GAC is a highly porous absorbent material, produced by heating organic
matter, such as coal, wood, etc. In the absence of air, this is then crushed into
granules.

Porosity: Porosity is the measurement of the void space in a material, and it is

a particle fraction of volume of voids over the total volume. Electron
microscopy can be very helpful in understanding the nature of catalyst porosity

APPARATUS REQUIRED
Apparatus
Required

Quantity

Reagents/Chem.
Required

Measuring
Cylinder(1000ml)

Activated Charcoal

Specific Gravity Bottle

Beaker (100ml)
Water bath
Iron wire

1
1
1
1

Benzene
Water

PROCEDURE
A. Bulk density estimation
1. Take the given sample of activated charcoal and weigh it.
2. Then take this weighed sample in a measuring cylinder.
3. To remove the space occupied by air in it, tap the sample slowly.
4. Note down the volume occupied by the material.
5. Then bulk density is the ratio of the weight of catalyst to the volume
occupied by it.

B. Pore volume
1. Take 2gm of the catalyst and place it imn a beaker containing 150 ml of
distilled water free from suspension.
2. Boil for an hour and cool to room temperature.
3. Slowly remove the left material from the beaker and dry superficially with a
filter or blotting paper so that it does not stick together.
4. Weight the wet material.
C. True density estimation

1. Weigh a 25ml specific gravity bottle with and without benzene.

2. Take 2ml of catalyst in specific gravity bottle and weigh again.
3. Dry it and weigh it.

CALCULATIONS
Bulk density calculation
Mass of charcoal=50gm
Bulk Volume of the charcoal=70cm3
Bulk density= Mass of charcoal/Bulk Volume of charcoal = 50/70 = 0.7142gm

True density calculations with water

Weight of the Sample taken= 2gm
Weight of the filter paper= 1gm
Weight of wet charcoal + filter paper= 3.9gm
Weight of water adsorbed = (Weight of wet charcoal + filter paper)
(Weight of the Sample taken) (Weight of the Sample taken)
= 3.9 2 1 = 0.9gm
Pore volume = weight of water adsorbed/density of water
= 0.9/1 = 0.9cm3
Bulk volume for the given sample= mass of the sample/bulk density
= 2/0.7142 = 2.8gm
Actual volume = bulk volume pore volume
= 2.8 0.9 = 1.9 cm3
True density = mass of the sample/actual volume
= 2/1.9
= 1.05gm/cm3

True density calculations with Benzene

Weight of the Sample taken= 2gm
Weight of the empty specific gravity bottle = 32.7gm
Weight of the specific gravity bottle filled with benzene = 53.4gm

Mass of benzene = 53.4 32.7 = 20.7gm

Density of benzene = mass of benzene / volume of specific gravity bottle
= 20.7/25 = 0.828 gm/cm3
Weight of the specific gravity bottle and charcoal adsorbed with benzene =
35.2gm
Weight of benzene adsorbed = (weight of bottle + adsorbed charcoal) -(weight of empty bottle) -- (weight of sample taken)
= 35.2 32.7 2 = 0.5gm
Pore volume = weight of benzene adsorbed/density of benzene
= 0.5/0.828 = 0.6038cm3
Bulk volume for the given sample= mass of the sample/bulk density
= 2/0.7132 = 2.8gm
Actual volume = bulk volume pore volume
= 2.8 0.60 = 2.2 cm3
True density = mass of the sample/actual volume
= 2/2.2
= 0.91gm/cm3

RESULTS
Bulk density: - it is the property of the powder, granular substances. It is the
ratio of mass of the sample to the total volume occupied by the sample. The
total volume includes volume of particles, inter-particle void volume and
internal pore volume. For this experiment bulk density of charcoal is
0.7142gm/cm3.
Pore volume: - it is the ratio of mass of material in the pores to the density of
material. It varies slightly with the material solutions used (as in this
experiment, pore volumes from water and benzene ore different).

True density:- it is the density of the particles that make up the powder
(sample) in contrast to the bulk density which measures the average density of
a large volume of the sample in a specific medium.

CONCLUSION
1) The variations in the results observed were mainly due to different
reagents (solvents) used to carry out the experiment.
2) When the sample in water is dried by heating, some of the water
molecules escape from the pores and air occupies that space,
3) As the least count of the weight measuring machine 0.1, it is unable to
show the small changes in the sample weight and leads to wrong results.

PRECAUTION
1) Weigh the sample accurately
2) Place it in the glass vase with care
3) Temperature at the water bottle should not exceed 90OC