Effects of carbonization temperatures on characteristics of porosity in coconut shell chars and activated carbons derived from carbonized coconut shell chars

A series of experiments have been conducted to study the effects of different carbonization temperatures (400, 600, 800 and 1000 degrees C) on characteristics of porosity in carbonized coconut shell char and activated carbon derived from carbonized coconut shell char with different activation times (30, 60, 90 and 120 min) at activation temperature of 900 degrees C. The results showed that high temperature carbonized coconut shell char and activated carbon samples derived from high temperature carbonized coconut shell chars had higher BET surface area, total volume, micropore volume and yield as compared to those of low temperature carbonized coconut shell char and activated carbon derived from low temperature carbonized coconut shell char. The BET surface area, total volume and micropore volume of activated carbon prepared from char obtained at 1000 degrees C with activation time of 120 min were 1926 m(2)/g, 1.26 cm(3)/g and 0.931 cm(3)/g, respectively. From the results, it was concluded that we could produce high surface area activated carbons from coconut shells using physical activation (steam activation) by proper selections of carbonization temperature and activation time. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.