The behavior and mechanism of resveratrol adsorption on mesoporous carbon

Mesoporous carbon is a promising new material for adsorption and purification of resveratrol. It is essential to explore the adsorption process to meet the requirements for practical application of an adsorbent. In this work, the adsorption of resveratrol onto mesoporous carbon (MC) was investigated using both static and dynamic adsorption methods. MC exhibited a high adsorption capacity for resveratrol when compared to other previously reported adsorbents. The adsorption isotherm and kinetics data fitted the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order models well. Film diffusion was the rate-limiting step. The thermodynamic study results indicated that MC adsorbed resveratrol via spontaneous, endothermic physical adsorption. It was found that pore structure, hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen-bonding and π–π stacking were the major factors affecting adsorption onto MC. Dynamic adsorption experiments showed that resveratrol purity was increased 8.18-fold in a single treatment with MC.