OBTENTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ACTIVATED CARBONS FROM SEEDS OF Mucuna sp

A series of activated carbons from a lignocellulosic material is obtained by a physical activation with water vapor. Mucuna Sp is the scientific name of the seed used as a lignocellulosic precursor. In this work the seeds are crushed and sieved before carbonizing them to obtain granular activated carbon. The effect of temperature (600-900 degrees C) and time of activation (1-10 h) was studied as well as the relationship with the textural properties of the carbon. The activated carbons obtained with different percentages of Burn-off were characterized by physical adsorption of N-2 at 77K. We evaluated the ability of adsorption in solution of the activated carbons by iodine index and the methylene blue index. We found a correlation between burn-off and the apparent surface area calculated by the BET method with values close to 1000 m(2)g(-1), as well as microporo volumes between 0.060 and 0.400 cm(3)g(-1) calculated by the DR method and the method alpha. The adsorption capacity in solution gives good results, because the results show good correlation with the porosity data. This is very important when determining the possible applications of the activated carbons.