Preparation and characterization of microporous activated carbon from chemical activation of rubber seed shell / Noor Hidayu Abdul Rani ... [et al.]

Preparation of porous and activated carbon of rubber seed shell adsorption has been conducted in this study. Rubber seed shell relatively known as sustainable, eco-friendly and a low, cost that can be formed as an activated carbon. Porousness of the rubber seed shell can be enhanced by two methods which are chemical and physical activation. Next, the rubber seed shell was activated by using chemical activation and further process under high temperature and absence of inert media. The study was conducted at a low oxygen content by applying the raw material for consuming oxygen inside the double crucible method (char of rubber seed was wrapped with aluminum foil) as to prevent intrusion of oxygen. The results of this study shows that activated carbon of seed shell was prepared successfully without using any inert media and the optimum temperature for this study is around 500°C. This is because the adsorption rate of methylene blue that shown on Ultraviolet-Visible ( UV-Vis) is increasing as the contact time increasing from 30 min to 120 min which are 3.592 cm to 3.596 cm. The adsorption ability of the material has increased clue to activation with zinc chloride compared to using raw rubber seed shell. It is concluded that rubber seed shell could be prepared in no1mal conditions instead of using an inert media. The study shows a method and possibility of producing sustainable, eco-friendly and a low cost activated carbon and it could be scaled up for commercial production.