A Comparative Study of the Effects of Different Chemical Agents on the Pore-Size Distributions of Macadamia Nutshell-Based Activated Carbons Using Different Models

The effects of the chemical activation agent and the chemical/nutshell ratio (ranging from 15–500 mass%) on the pore-size distribution (PSD) of macadamia nutshell-based activated carbons have been investigated in this study. The adsorption isotherm data of two series of activated carbons prepared fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ahmad Okhovat, Ali Ahmadpour
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2012-02-01
Series:Adsorption Science & Technology
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1260/0263-6174.30.2.159
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Summary:The effects of the chemical activation agent and the chemical/nutshell ratio (ranging from 15–500 mass%) on the pore-size distribution (PSD) of macadamia nutshell-based activated carbons have been investigated in this study. The adsorption isotherm data of two series of activated carbons prepared from macadamia nutshell by chemical activation with potassium hydroxide and zinc chloride were used. The three widely used models of Dubinin–Stoeckli, Stoeckli and Horvath–Kawazoe were applied for characterizing these porous solids. Although the results showed some differences amongst these models arising from the fundamental assumptions on which they are based, in general they were comparable. Thus, at the same chemical ratio, samples activated by ZnCl 2 showed more adsorption capacity than those from KOH. Moreover, the pore volumes increased as the impregnation ratio in each series increased. In addition, with increasing impregnation ratio (up to 100%) in the ZnCl 2 series, the micropores were widened and a further increase in ZnCl 2 content caused the micropores to change to mesopores. In the KOH series, increasing KOH created more micropores in the carbon structure over the whole range of chemical/nutshell ratio studied.
ISSN:0263-6174
2048-4038