Microporous activated carbon fiber from pineapple leaf fiber by H3PO4 activation

Abstract

Activated carbon fiber was prepared from pineapple fiber by carbonization followed with chemical activation using H3PO4. The activation was performed using a 1:1 w/v ratio of starting materials and H3PO4. Activated carbon fiber was also directly prepared by soaking pineapple fiber in H3PO4. The surface morphology and textural characteristics of activated carbon fibers vary with the activation temperature. The carbonized and activated products were characterized by SEM-EDS, FTIR, XRD and BET methods. The results for the activated products showed that the surface area, average pore size and percent micropore were increased as the activation temperature was increased from 400-600°C. The surface area of activated carbon fibers from pineapple fiber was 440.9211-636.3495 m2 g-1. Furthermore micropores (73.40-83.92%) are present in these activated products. It was shown that the activated carbon fibers prepared using pre-carbonization and phosphoric acid activation had higher BET surface area than materials prepared without nonpre-carbonization at the same activation temperature. However, the process without pre-carbonization uses less energy than other processes. The P-containing and O-containing surface functional groups were found on materials prepared using phosphoric acid activation, pineapple leaf fiber base activated carbon fiber by without pre-carbonization and pre-carbonization. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that pineapple fiber is a suitable material for the preparation of adsorption filters.