Production of Activated Carbon from Waste PET’ Chars

Abstract

Activated carbon, which is used in many application areas such as gas purification, purification of pollution in water and wastewater, removal of odor and pollution, in the defense industry, in the production of protective clothing and in the health sector, was produced from solid products obtained by waste polyethylene terephthalate (wPET) liquefaction that was carried out under non-catalytic conditions, the reaction time of 15-90 min, and a reaction temperature of 325-425 °C in a batch reactor. The solid products obtained, after grinding, were made in a muffle furnace at 400-700°C in a nitrogen gas atmosphere for 30 min. The solid products obtained in the liquefaction of waste polyethylene terephthalate contain approximately 60% Carbon (C), 4% Hydrogen (H) and 36% Oxygen (O), and are composed of terephthalic acid (C 8 H 6 O 4 ) in crystalline form. According to Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, BET surface area of 313.05 m 2 g -1 and average pore diameter of 2.71 nm of ZnCl 2 activated carbons were obtained. They have formed largely mesoporous structures. According to Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis, it was observed that medium and large porous structures were formed. Produced activated carbons have commercial product potential but there is a need to optimize the process parameters for better results.

Application of Infrared Pyrolysis and Chemical Post-Activation in the Conversion of Polyethylene Terephthalate Waste into Porous Carbons for Water Purification

“…Consequently, attempting to degas the sample to obtain a nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm at lower temperatures (<400 °C) leads to partial decomposition, resulting in an incomplete isotherm and introducing a certain level of error in specific surface area measurement. To our best knowledge, very few works are devoted to direct pyrolysis of PET to obtain porous carbons [34][35][36]. We show Table 1 compiles data on the porosity characteristics of the carbon materials obtained.…”

Determination of the effectiveness of carbons obtained from the co-carbonization of duckweed and waste coffee on crystal violet removal

“…Activated carbons, which have a high surface area, can be produced from many sources such as biomass and waste plastics [1], [2]. They are used as separation/purification of gases and liquids, removal of toxic substances, catalyst/catalyst support, supercapacitor and electrode [3]- [6].…”