Porous Carbons for Environmental Cleanup

page 50 Abstract: Porous carbons are used primarily for purification purposes through adsorption of contaminants on the surface of the activated carbon. The specific functional groups on the activated carbon are important to know since different functional groups adsorb different chemicals. Because different functional groups have different pKa values, a titration of an activated carbon indicates which functional groups are attached to the carbon. Also, a titration of two activated carbons with varying ionic strengths indicates the pH of zero charge for that activated carbon. This project’s focus is to determine the appropriate equilibrium time for various activated carbons in titrations used for these purposes.