Self-regulating Humidity Activated Carbon Material Prepared from Bamboo for the Room

Abstract

A self-regulating humidity material with bamboo for the room was prepared. The activated carbons were prepared with the temperature rising rates of 5, 10, 15, 20 °C/min and constant temperatures of 600, 700, 800, 900, 1 000, 1 100, 1 200, 1 300, 1 400, and 1 500 °C for 0.5, 1, 2, 3, and 6 h, respectively. And then their structures such as specific surface areas, volumes of pores from 3.7-7.1 nm and average pore diameters were tested. Various humidity conditions were simulated and their self-regulating humidity properties such as absorption/desorption contents, rates and stabilities were evaluated. The results show that the specific surface area, volume of pores from 3.7-7.1 nm and average pore diameter of activated carbon are closely nonlinearly related to the temperature rising rate, temperature and holding time. In general, the activated carbon prepared with the temperature rising rate of 5 °C/min and kept at 1 100 °C for 2 h has the highest absorption/ desorption content and rate, the lowest decay factor and then the best stability at all humidity for the fact that it is provided with proper average pore diameter, higher specific surface area and volume of pores from 3.7-7.1 nm. The activated carbons can be prepared with the temperature rising rate of 5 °C/min and kept at 1000, 900, 1 200, 1 300, 1 400, 1 500, 800, 700, and 600 °C respectively for 2 h. These resulted properties are attributed to their different average pore diameters and volumes of pores from 3.7-7.1 nm.