Developing Activated Carbon From Date Seeds and Carbon Fiber for Use in Liver Support Devices

Abstract

This work aims at utilizing natural resources and recycling materials from aircraft industries to enable their usage in medical and purification applications. The main application for which the materials are tested is the adsorption of bilirubin toxin from the liver of end stage liver failure patients. The two materials of concern are date seeds and carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). Samples of the materials will be treated to produce activated carbon (AC). Following the preparation of the ACs and chitosan coated ACs, tests are carried out to compare uncoated ACs with chitosan coated ACs. FTIR spectroscopy, TGA, DSC and a Spectrophotometer are utilized in order to characterize the samples obtained. From the data acquired, it is concluded that the chitosan coated ACs have better adsorption than the uncoated ACs. The activated carbon fibers showed the highest efficiency for the adsorption of bilirubin toxin. At an adsorbent dose of 0.8 gm, findings show that 98.4% of bilirubin toxin is adsorbed in samples where ACF is used as the adsorbent while 96.5% remained in samples where DPAC was used as the adsorbent.