Effect of Thermal and Wet Chemical Treatments on The Electrical Conductivity of Active Carbon
Abstract
Abstract Activated carbon is a weak conductor 18x10-3 Sm-1 , it's electrical conductivity could be enhanced either by heating the specimen in an open oven to a temperature of 100 to 600 oC ,or by different wet chemical treatments including: acids, organic solvents, reducing agents, oxidizing agents, and finally consecutive chemical treatments .The electrical conductivities were increased compared to the untreated specimens as follow: Acids( HCl 60.3% , Nitric 55.2%. Sulfuric 48.7%,Phosphoric 41%. Acetic 15.4% ). Organic solvents( Chloroform 45.9%,Acetone 34.5%,Diethyl ether 3.1%.Cyclohexane26.3%).Reducing agents (Sodium borohydride 57.5%, Zinc chloride/ HCl 40.9%).Hummer's Reagent 42.2% . Bromine 27.2% . Consecutive treatments a)Solvent – Oxidizing agent –Reducing agent 70.9%.b) Solvent –Reducing agent –Oxidizing agent 69.2 %.Heat / Air (100 oC: 9%,250 oC : 18.1%, 350 oC: 26.1%, 450 oC 36.3% , 600 oC: 45.4%Sample treated with sodium borohydride shows a highest pore area 222.87 g m-2 compared to untreated specimen 153.76 g m-2 and that treated with hydrochloric acid 171.27 g m-2. XRD, ATR, FT-IR and TGA techniques were implemented to monitor structural changes induced by above mentioned treatments.
Keywords
Activated carbon, surface modification, electrical conductivity, acid treatment, electrical properties, FTIR, ATR, TGA, XRD, and particle size.Metrics