Fabrication and Characterization of Activated Carbon Fibers from Oil Palm Trunk.

Jian Lin,Rattana Choowang,Guangjie Zhao

doi:10.3390/polym12122775

Abstract

To develop more valuable application, oil palm trunk was successfully converted into activated carbon fibers (ACFs). An effective process of chemical treatment with dilute sulfuric acid was conducted to improve the thermal stability of primary fibers for further heating treatment. Carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as activator to produce much porous structure with various pore diameter. The specific surface area (SBET) and total pore volume (Vtotal) of resultant ACFs showed increasing trend as rise of activation temperature and time. The ACFs obtained under the temperature of 900 °C and time of 90 min exhibited highest SBET and Vtotal, which were more than 1800 m2/g and 0.7 mL/g, respectively. Meanwhile, more graphic carbon on the surface of ACFs were destroyed with prolonging activation time, resulting in the oxygen-containing functional groups formed during activation process with CO2. Due to the abundant pores and surface functional groups, the ACFs exhibited excellent adsorption capacity of chromium and would be an alternative material for industrial adsorption utilization.

Highlights

As one of the most significant members in carbon family, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) are fibrous carbonaceous material and generally prepared from carbon fiber or precursor fibers by activation with some oxidized gas or chemical reagent at high temperature
Oil palm trunk was liquefied with PEG-400 and successfully converted into ACFs with
Oil palm trunk was liquefied with PEG-400 and successfully converted into ACFs with porous structure by carbonization and CO2 activation

Summary

Introduction

As one of the most significant members in carbon family, activated carbon fibers (ACFs) are fibrous carbonaceous material and generally prepared from carbon fiber or precursor fibers by activation with some oxidized gas or chemical reagent at high temperature. ACFs were commercially manufactured by the procedures of spinning, thermostabilization, carbonization and activation from pitch, viscose rayon phenolic resin and polyacrylonitrile [2,3,4,5]. Such raw materials for ACFs preparation are environment-unfriendly and limited resources. Various processes have been developed to convert such bio-based raw materials into ACFs with large amount of porous structure, which can be applied in several significant fields, such as energy industry and wastewater treatment as well as gas phase adsorption

Methods

Results

Conclusion