Preparation of activated carbon from Phu Phan Dendrocalamus asper backer

Abstract

The abstract reveal the objectives of the research and the results proposed: the objective of this research is to prepare activated carbon from Phu Phan Dendrocalamus asper backer obtained from Phu Phan district Sakon Nakhon province. The effect of chemical activation process of activated carbon was immersed in a 35% hydrochloric acid solution. The physical properties such as moisture, ash, volatile and fixed carbon contents were measured. The results were found that the optimum carbonization temperature was 550 ˚C for 2 h. The amount of ash and fixed carbon were 0.35% and 97%. It was then activated by microwave radiation at 800 watts for 60 sec. Finally, it was ground and sieved with a sieve shaker (size 75 µm). The surface area, total pore volume and pore radius were obtained by 20.47 m²/g, 0.0467 cm³/g, and 4.56 nm, respectively. The crystal structure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and the peak positions were confirmed at the corner (14˚, 24˚, 26˚, and 29˚). The results showed that the activated carbon had a graphite crystal structure, whereas the peak in the position 30˚-50˚ was low, indicating that the structure was contaminated with amorphous carbon. An explanation for this is that during the heating process, the arrangement of carbon is the plane of graphite, and during carbonization, there is a random distribution of graphite structures, resulting in a lack of integrity in the carbon crystal structure. The average size according to scanning electron microscopy was between 60-240 µm and the Vicker hardness was 92.