Characterization of Activated Carbon Prepared from Almond Shells for Scavenging Phenolic Pollutants

Abstract: The present work comprises study of almond shell activated carbon (ASAC) impregnated by H 3 PO 4 used as adsorbent. The objective of this work was to determine the ability of activated carbon in phenol removal. The activated carbon in the study was of size +1 to -4.75 mm. ASAC is found to be inexpensive and effective adsorbent for removal of phenol from aqueous solution. Prepared activated carbon was characterized by determining Iodine number and methylene blue number to examine the extent and nature of porosity. The higher methylene blue number demonstrates that fairly mesoporous carbon has been developed by the process which can facilitate its applicability as potential dye removal adsorbent. N 2 BET surface area has been found to be quite comparable to commercially available carbon. The FTIR results strongly support significant spectral and chemical changes occurring with the activation of the almond shells for phosphoric acid treatment. The physical morphology clearly shows that the data obtained is consistent to the structural surface as determined by analyzing the SEM micrographs