Preparation and characterization of activated carbon from castor seed hull by chemical activation with H3PO4

Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) is an import porous material that is used for various industrial applications. In this work, AC was prepared from the castor seed hull (CH-AC) through H3PO4 impregnations and thermal treatments. The raw castor seed hull was treated with H3PO4 with various impregnation rations (0.2–0.8), and then thermally treated at 600, 700, and 900 °C for calcination times of 60, 90, and 120 min. The resulting activated carbons were characterized using SEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, and BET. The activated carbon yield of the CH-AC at various activation conditions was determined. The proximate and ultimate analyses, morphological and textural properties of the AC were measured. The effects of H3PO4 impregnation ratio, activation time, and activation temperature on the AC yield, and morphological and textural properties were investigated. The yield of the AC increases with increasing H3PO4 impregnation ratio and a maximum AC yield of 78.86%, was obtained at 0.8H3PO4 impregnation ratio, activation temperature of 700 °C, and activation time of 60 min. Moreover, a maximum BET surface area of 785.38 m2/g was obtained at 0.8H3PO4 impregnation ration 78.86%, activation temperature of 700 °C, and activation time of 60 min. In this work, we managed to prepare AC with good yield and textural characteristics using low H3PO4 implementation ratio which could lower the cost of production of activated carbons from biomass.