Study of phenol adsorption using holographic interferometry in photorefractive crystals

Phenol is a major pollutant under strict effluent restriction. Its toxicity is well known, both in aquatic environment and human health. Among the purification technologies, adsorption is widely used in ecological procedures for chemical industry, for water and air purification. In order to check-up the adsorbent properties of different adsorbent materials, it is necessary to determine some modeling parameters as the diffusion constants and concentration profiles in the vicinity of the adsorbent. The visualization and measuring method used in this work is double-exposure holographic interferometry using a Bi(12)TiO(20) (BTO) photorefractive crystal (PRC) as reusable recording material and a low cost laser diode, as coherent light source. By holographic methods, we are studying phenol adsorption on granulated active coal and active coal powder. The visualisation of the diffusion layer and measurements of its dynamics have been performed.