Recovering of a vegetable by-product for production of adsorbent material

Activated carbons were prepared from the biomass of Algerian date pits via two stages, pyrolysis and physical activation with H2O/N-2. Date stones are pyrolysed at 700 degrees C for 1 h, under 150 cm(3)/min nitrogen flow rate and 10 degrees C/min heating rate, and then activated in the same conditions under steam for 4 h. The natural date stones and the prepared materials were characterised with different methods as nitrogen adsorption at 77 K for the BET surface area determination, scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. All these methods showed that porosity, specific surface area and adsorption capacity of the synthesized materials increased after pyrolysis and are more developed after activation processes. The adsorption of pb(2+) on the prepared activated carbon confirms these results and shows a good adsorbtion capacity.