Preparation on Activated Carbon from Cotton Stalk by Chemical Activation with Potassium Hydroxide

Preparation of activated carbon from cotton stalk by chemical activation was investigated in this paper. The plant was firstly carbonized at 400℃ for 120 min and then activated with potassium hydroxide. Effects of alkali-carbon ratio, activa-tion temperature and activation time were studied on the adsorption capacities and yield of the activated carbon. The experi-mental results showed that the optimum preparation conditions were as follows: the alkali carbon ratio of 2.0, the activation temperature of 700 ℃ and the activation time of 90 min. At this time, the adsorption values of the iodine and the methylene blue,activation yield and the surface area of the activated carbon were 1 381 mg/g, 180 mg/g, 18.07% and 1548 m2/g respectively, the average aperture was 4.42 nm and the most probable aperture was 2.17 nm.