Study of synthesis and characterization of raw bagasse, its char and activated carbon prepared using chemical...

This paper reports the use of naturally available raw material as sugarcane bagasse (SB) to prepare cost-effective activated carbon. Activated carbon preparation from SB by using ZnCl₂ was carried out by chemical activation method. The raw bagasse, its char and activated carbon were characterized on the basis of iodine number, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area to check their effectiveness. During activated carbon synthesis, the impregnation ratio of SB and ZnCl₂ was maintained at 1:1-1:3 and activation temperature was in the range of 600-900 °C for 1 h. From the characterization study, the highest iodine adsorption of activated carbon was found to be 1140.69 mg/g with a 1:2 ratio at 900 °C whereas char gives an iodine number of 529.63 mg/g at the same temperature. The BET surface area of raw bagasse, its char and activated carbon (SB-Zn₂-900) obtained was 4.30, 514.27 and 1386.58 m²/g, respectively, which shows charrification and chemical activation improves surface area. The optimum ratio of impregnation and activation temperature was found to be 1:2 at 900 °C. In this work, activated carbon was successfully prepared and obtained product has better characteristics than previously reported studies.