Preparation Activated Carbon of From Iraqi Reed

Abstract

In this work activated carbon (AC) was successfully prepared from localraw material namely Iraqi Reed .This source is cheap and available and in thiswork AC is prepared from it for the first time. A chemical method using zincchloride was used in the activation process. The proper carbonization temperaturewas found to be 450 oC and the time required for carbonization was one hour. Theadsorption capacity for acetone of the prepared AC was measured and found to be15.6%. Some important properties were also studied such as: apparent density(0.451 g/cm3), ash content (9.4%), moisture content (4.8%). The x- raydiffraction also showed that AC exhibited a poorly crystalline structure, with alittle amount of silica and graphite.Decolorization capacity (DC %) of AC on: (a) Caramel dye solution (b) Potassiumpermanganate solution, were studied. The effect of quantity Of AC and contacttime was investigated using UV- spectrophotometer. It was found thatdecolorization capacity DC% of KMnO4 solution (93%) and it was better adsorbedwithin one hour, while DC% of caramel dye solution was (87%) and it was a betteradsorbent for the color within two hours. It is concluded that AC prepared in thiswork has a good specification compared with standard sample thus it is suitable forindustrial uses.