Selective Development of Different Pore Types in Coconut Shell-Based Activated Carbon

The different pore sizes of activated carbons play different roles during the application of activated carbons. As such, there is continued interest in the selective development of pores of specific sizes in activated carbons during their preparation. In this work coconut shell-based activated carbons were manufactured by the physical method using steam as the activation medium. Subsequently, the effects of process parameters during the manufacture of activated carbons on the selective creation of pores in the activated carbons were studied. The results showed that as the activation temperature was increased the activated carbon became more microporous relative to the other pore types. Increasing the activation time also achieved a similar result. It is noted, however, that faster development of the micropores was achieved by increasing the activation temperature than by increasing the activation time. Changes in both the activation temperature and the activation time had little effect on the macropore surface area of the activated carbon, suggesting that the macropores in coconut shell-based activated carbon were not affected by those process parameters. The results of this work have important implications on manufacture and application of activated carbons of specific pores sizes.