AN INVESTIGATION ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND PORE CHARACTERISTICS OF NATURAL-BASED ACTIVATED CARBON NANOSTRUCTURES FABRICATED THROUGH MICROWAVE ACTIVATION METHOD
1Isfahan University of Technology, Research Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials
2Isfahan University of Technology, Department of Textile Engineering, Head of Research Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials
چکیده
In this work, microwave activation of pistachio and walnut shell as well as dates stone to produce activated carbon nanostructures has been carried out. The microstructure of the samples has been studied by XRD analysis. XRD patterns proved the successful transformation of natural wastes to activated carbon nanostructures. FESEM analysis has been employed to study the surface morphology of the samples. Dates stone-based activated carbon nanostructures showed very high porous structure containing nearly cylindrical pores on the surface. For pistachio shell-based activated carbon nanostructures a fluffy surface has been observed. Walnut shell-based activated carbon nanostructures depicted a rather non-smooth and non-uniform solid surface. Moreover, the specific surface area of dates stone-based activated carbon nanostructures according to BET analysis measured to be 427.94 m2.g-1. The average pore size and total pore volume of dates stone-based activated carbon nanostructures were about 2 nm and 0.22 cm3.g-1, respectively. The specific surface area of activated carbon nanostructures fabricated from pistachio and walnut shell has been obtained as low as 20.43 and 3.13 m2.g-1, respectively. Hence, it has been concluded that microwave activation of dates stones results in the fabrication of highly porous activated carbon nanostructures with a high specific surface area that has the potential to be used in the filtration industry.
