Preparation of activated carbons from seeds of Mucuna mutisiana by physical activation with steam

摘要

The purpose of this study was to obtain a series of activated carbons from the seeds ofMucuna mutisiana by physical activation with a mixture of steam and nitrogen in the presence of air. The effects of modulating the time and the temperature of activation were studied for samples that presented burn-off values between 33% and 86%. The samples obtained were characterised by physical adsorption of nitrogen at 77 K and carbon dioxide at 273 K. The apparent superficial areas were calculated by the BET method and the micropore volumes were calculated using the Dubinin-Raduskevich (DR) method and the alpha method. The results showed values of superficial area between 159 and 1106m~2g~(-1) and micropore volumes between 0.069 and 0.455 cm~3 g~(-1). The samples also presented mesoporosity with values between 0.023 and 0.125 cm~3 g~(-1).