Adsorptive evaluation of a functionalized silica aerogel composite for phenol removal: comprehensive isotherm and thermodynamic analysis

Key Points

• Phenol removal using a functionalized silica aerogel composite reaches over 90%, showing significant efficiency in adsorption.
• The adsorption data aligns with the Langmuir isotherm model, highlighting the effectiveness of the composite material.
• Evaluation involved thorough thermodynamic analysis to understand the energy changes during phenol removal.
• These findings may encourage further development of silica aerogels in environmental cleanup strategies.