A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHEMICAL AND MICROWAVE SYNTHESIZED ACTIVATED CARBORN FROM CORN COB

ABSTRACT
Activated carbon, also widely known as activated charcoal or activated coal is a form of carbon which has been processed to make it extremely porous and thus to have a very large surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions (Mattson et al., 1971). The word active is sometimes used in place of activated. It is characterized by high degree of micro porosity. A gram of activated carbon can have a surface area in excess of 500 m2. Sufficient activation for useful applications may come solely from the high surface area, though further chemical treatment generally enhances the adsorbing properties of the material. Activated carbon is most commonly derived from charcoal.
Waste biomass is getting increasing attention all over the world for activated carbon development as it is renewable, widely available, cheap and environmentally friendly resource. The common method of development is thermochemical (Kumar et al., 2005). The main concern is the removal of chemical component by adsorption from the liquid or gas phase (Bansal et al., 1988). Today, activated carbon has been produced from various biomass such as corncob, rice husk, cherry stones, coconut shells, palm shells, to mention but a few.