In this diploma thesis, I studied the interaction of acetic acid (AcOH) and diethyl phthalate (DEP) with activated carbon, namely the process of extraction of both compounds from the activated carbon and the efficiency of their adsorption on the mentioned sorbent. Ion chromatography was used for the quantitative determination of AcOH and gas chromatography for the quantitative determination of DEP. First, the extraction methods were optimised for each analyte by determining the appropriate solvent and the mode and time of shaking the extraction mixture. A 10 mM NaOH solution was found to be suitable for the extraction of AcOH, and acetone for the extraction of DEP. For both analytes, sonification for 60 minutes was suitable. The suitability of the optimised methods for the extraction of each analyte at lower concentrations (ten-fold and hundred-fold dilutions) was tested. The method proved to be suitable for the extraction of DEP at lower concentrations but proved to be unreliable for dilute AcOH solutions. In the second part of the thesis, I determined the percentage of each analyte that is adsorbed on activated carbon from air in a controlled atmosphere in a flow-through system with two pollutants. It was found that most of AcOH is adsorbed, while most of DEP remains in the air.
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