Production and characterization of active carbon fabric with superior properties from cellulose based fabric

Activated carbon which cannot be defined by any chemical formula, is an adsorbent material with a high porosity and high carbon content. Due to this adsorption capacity property, activated carbon is used in water treatment, gas filtration, pharmacological product prescription, cosmetic industry etc. Activated carbon is produced in two steps: carbonization and activation. The main purpose of the carbonization process is to reveal the structure of carbon skeleton by removing moisture and volatiles in the structure. Basic pore formation occurs during this process. Activation is the process of oxidation. It can be applied before or after carbonization. The aim is to improve the pore structure formed during carbonization. In this study, the resultes of production of activated carbon in the form of fiber / fabric which have an increasing interest in the industry was demonstrated. The reasons for choosing the production of activated carbon fabric as the target product is that the fabric form has a more homogenous micropore size distribution than the other forms, the higher the adsorption capacity and the kinetics. Another advantage is its flexibility. There are many studies published on this subject, but similar methods have been tried to produce activated carbon fabreic from cellulose based fabrics. In this study, it is proposed to introduce a new structure with a controllable pore diameter by using a combination of H3PO4 which contributes to the wide pore formation and ZnCl2 which provides a narrow pore formation. In the production stages, activation temperatures and other selected parameters that have direct effect on the product were investigated. As a result, because of having controllable pore diameter, the parameters of production of highly active carbon fabric are revealed.