Determination of Optimal Conditions for Production of Highly Porous Carbon by Chemical Activation Method

Abstract

Activated carbon is a complex and crude form of graphite. Compared to graphite, activated carbon exhibits an unusual imperfect structure that is tremendously porous ranging from nanopore to milipore sizes. Its graphitelike structure yields the carbon its very large surface area which takes a great advantage to adsorb a wide range of substances. Although the production of activated carbon from the raw materials such as coal and coal tar pitch prevails, its production from agricultural wastes is possible. In this study the canola straw is considered as a potential activated carbon source. The examined samples were obtained by chemical activation. New kind of carbons were characterized by elemental analysis, the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Besides, the effect of experimental parameters on chemical and pore properties of the activated carbon materials was modeled and optimized.