Effects of heating method and activating agent on the porous structure of activated carbons from coconut shells

An extensive experimental study has been attempted to assess the effect of heating method and the activation agent on the pore characteristics of activated carbon from coconut shell. The results show that the textural characteristics of activated carbon improve with increase in holding time until an optimum, while the yield decrease with an increase in the holding time, using conventional activation method. The microwave heating requires significantly lesser holding time as compared to conventional heating method, to produce activated carbon of comparable quality, with higher yield. The BET surface area of steam activated carbon using microwave heating is significantly higher than the conventional heating, however with CO₂ activation microwave heating shows only a marginal increase in BET surface area as compared to conventional heating. The activated carbon prepared using microwave heating has a surface area of 1,684 m²/g with steam activation, while CO ₂ activation has a surface area of 1,716 m²/g, which is significantly higher than the majority of the surface area reported in literature using conventional physical activation.