Characterization of activated carbon produced from pistachio shell at different temperatures

Abstract

Activated carbons (ACs), which are used as active surfaces in an adsorption process, make the latter successful owing to their high surface area and high volume in terms of micropores. The characteristics of the method used in AC production help to improve the porosity structure of AC and to increase the surface area. In this work, the effect of different temperatures and H2SO4 on the surface area and porosity structure in obtaining AC from pistachio shells was studied. For this purpose, the collected pistachio shells were kept in 10% NaCl and 10% H2SO4 solution for 24 h. At the end of the period, the material was carbonized for 45 min at 3 different temperatures (500, 700 and 800 oC). The obtained ACs were characterized using a surface area and pore size analyzer, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). According to the results obtained, it was found that the AC-800 has the highest surface area compared to the other obtained ACs. So, it had a BET surface area of 2093.063 m2/g, and its micropore volume was 1.053 cc/g. All functional groups in the structure of raw pistachio shells were destroyed for pore formation and the resulting porosity is supported by FT-IR and SEM images. With this new method, ACs with a high surface area were obtained and it was understood that the use of H2SO4 decreased the surface area while increasing the temperature increased both the surface area and micropore volume.