Chapter 1 Types of carbon adsorbents and their production

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the types of adsorbents and their production. The majority of carbons exhibit the allotropic form of graphite, while diamond-like carbons, fullerenes and their derivatives, represent a shorter variety of carbon forms. Depending on the degree of crystallographic order in the third direction, carbons based on the allotropic form of graphite can be classified into graphitic carbons and non-graphitic carbons. Non-graphitic carbons can be divided into graphitizable and non-graphitizable carbons. Moving up from nano-scale to micro-scale, carbons exhibit very different structures. Powder and granular activated carbons are typical carbon adsorbents. Carbon adsorbents have a porous carbon structure, which contains small amounts of different heteroatoms, such as oxygen and hydrogen. The presence or absence of surface groups, formed by heteroatoms that may bond themselves to the carbon atoms at the edges of the basal planes gives rise to carbons with different chemical properties. The physical and chemical properties are important for the behavior of carbon adsorbents.