Surface characterisation of mechanochemicaly activated carbon cloth

Abstract

Adsorption on activated carbon cloth is an efficient procedure for removing pollutants from wastewaters, because this material possesses large specific area and high adsorption capacity. In this study the activated carbon cloth was modified by mechanical milling in order to improve its sorption properties. The microstructure and morphology of the sample was investigated by XRD, PSD and SEM and surface chemistry was characterized by potentiometric titrations. The result showed that microstructure and morphology was drastically changed with milling: particle sizes reduction, agglomeration and the loss of fibrous structure occurred. These changes resulted in increase of the acidic and the base groups: the number of basic groups was increased by the factor of 11 while the number of acidic groups by the factor of 1.5.