No.1-4 Utilization of activated carbon prepared from Mozambican coal for heavy metals adsorption

抄録

Activated carbon was prepared from high ash Mozambican coal by chemical activation through K₂CO₃ impregnation and later tested for adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution. The effect of activation temperature, impregnation ratio on BET surface area, pore size and pore volume were discussed. It was observed that the activated carbon prepared at a reaction temperature of 800 °C and impregnation ratio of 1:1, showed larger specific surface area of 895 m²/g and pore volume of about 0.4 cm³/g. The capacity to remove zinc, and chromium from aqueous solution was tested by batch experiments carried out at room temperature in 100 mL Erlenmeyer flasks. The adsorption percentage of Zn was satisfactory, reaching about 97.8% at contact time of 1 hour while for Cr the percentage of adsorption was lower, attaining only 10.8% at the end of 1hour experiment.