The surface area for activated carbons range from 500 m² to1500 m² or more per gram. If one could unfold all the microscopic surfaces in one teaspoon of activated carbon it could add up to the size of a football field.
Coconut Activated Charcoal - 50,000 magnificationUnder an electron microscope (50,000 magnification), the high surface-area structures of activated carbon are more obvious. activated carbon suppliers Individual particles are intensely convoluted with micro porosity in the range of a few nanometers. These microscopic pores are divinely engineered to offer binding sites for thousands of different chemicals.
Physically, activated carbon binds materials by electrostatic Van der Waals (intermolecular) forces.
There are however chemicals that do not bind well to activated carbon including alcohols, glycols, ammonia, strong acids and bases, metals and most inorganics such as lithium, sodium, iron, lead, arsenic, fluorine, and boric acid. dxdcarbon Activated carbon does adsorb iodine very well and in fact the iodine number (mg/g) is used as an indication of total surface area.
Since activated carbon does not adsorb inorganic compounds well activated carbons are sometimes “sensitized” with various chemicals to improve the adsorptive capacity for some inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, formaldehyde, radioisotopes, and mercury. This function is called chemisorption.
