Preparation and characteristics of activated carbon from waste fiberboard and its use for adsorption of Cu(Ⅱ)

摘要

In this paper, fiberboard-based activated carbons (FACs) were prepared by the steam activation method. The resultant FACs were characterized by measuring their respective porosities and pore size distributions. The FACs prepared had BET surface areas ranging from 465.33 to 1057.32 m~2/g, and ratios of micropore volume to total pore volume ranging from 0.25 to 0.56. The pore size distributions (PSDs) were narrow and peaked at a pore diameter of approximately 0.5 nm. Both the surface area and nature of porosity were significantly affected by the activation temperature. In general, the higher the activation temperature was, the greater the surface areas and micropore volumes of the resultant FACs were. Nevertheless, the total pore volume (V_t) was significantly increased with the decrease of average pore diameter (D_(avg)), which suggested that the micropore development occurred intensely and mainly depended on the shrinkage of intrawalls between the micropore members during the activation process. The FACs obtained which showed a higher adsorption capacity to Cu (Ⅱ) ions are promising biosorbents which may be used for the removal of heavy metal ions in the water purification process, from the viewpoints of low cost and ecofriendly material development.