The origin of activated carbon

1. The The origin origin of of activated activated carbon carbon Activated carbon is a traditional and modern man-made material, also known as activated charcoal . In the 100 years since the advent of activated carbon, the application fields of activated carbon have been expanding day by day, and the number of applications has been increasing. Looking Looking back back at at the the history history of of charcoal charcoal application, application, the the record record is is as as follows: follows: (1) Records of medical use in Egypt in 1550 BC (2) From 460 to 359 BC, the Greek doctor Hippocrate used to treat epilepsy (3) From 1518 to 1593, China’s Li Shizhen’s Compendium of Materia Medica mentioned its use in treating diseases. (4) External use for ulcers in 1993; (5) In 1794, a British sugar factory used it to accelerate decolorization. The above examples all use charcoal, not activated carbon. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

2. Activated carbon, as a man-made material, was only invented in 1900 and 1901. The inventor obtained a British patent; he invented the method of carbonizing plant-source raw materials with metal chlorides or reacting carbon dioxide or water vapor with carbonized materials to produce activated carbon. The factory near Vienna was first used for industrial production in 1911. At that time, the product was powdered activated carbon with the trade name Epomit; in the same year, Norit was launched in the Netherlands; in 1912, Carboraffin was sold in Czechoslovakia. Looking back at the history of activated carbon application in the world over the past century, it may be roughly divided into three stages: (1) The first stage, from the early 20th century to about the 1920 s, is the embryonic stage ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

3. (2) The second stage, from about the mid-1920 s to the mid-term to the growth stage (3) The third stage is the development stage from the mid-20th century to the end of the 20th century. The development of activated carbon has become a major application stage for environmental protection. These three stages can be used to describe two historic events in the application process of activated carbon as a dividing line. The first major event was the use of activated carbon gas masks in World War I in the 1920s. It can be used as a boundary to divide the first and second stages of activated carbon application history. The main application of activated carbon in the early stage was that powdered carbon gradually replaced the original bone char in the sugar industry. The particles, which emerged during World War I in the 1920 s, were used extensively in gas masks. This is a glorious page in the history of industrial chemistry. At that time, Norit in the Netherlands and manufacturers and wholesalers from Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Switzerland and other countries established a joint company, indicating that the activated carbon budding in Europe was also a widely optimistic emerging industry. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

4. Driven by the application of gas masks, the history of activated carbon has entered the second stage. The activated carbon market continues to expand. The adsorption and catalytic functions of activated carbon have been continuously developed in the refining, recycling, and synthesis of many industries. Activated carbon plants in the United States and other countries have been opened one after another. Activated carbon, which continued to expand its application areas in the mid-20th century, is regarded as a universal adsorbent. The second major event is the deodorizing effect of activated carbon: In 1927, a stench accident in tap water occurred at the Chicago Waterworks in the United States that was unacceptable to the majority of residents. This was due to the odor generated by the phenol in the raw water and the chlorine used for disinfection. Similar accidents have ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

5. also occurred in water plants in Germany and other places, and these accidents were all solved with activated carbon. Since then, as environmental protection has received increasing attention, government regulations have become increasingly strict. The usage of activated carbon has increased dramatically not only in water purification, but also in gas purification and other aspects. In the second half of the 20th century, the environmental protection industry became a major user of activated carbon. As a result, the history of activated carbon has entered the third stage, that is, the development stage. The application history of Chinese activated carbon brands can be simply divided into three stages. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

6. (1) The first stage was before the 1940 s. my country's pharmaceutical and chemical industries used a large amount of activated carbon, all of which were imported, such as Carboraffin brand activated carbon. (2) The second stage began in the early 1950 s when Chinese-produced activated carbon came on the market. In 1951, the single-tube furnace factories in Shenyang and Fushun, the reverberatory furnace smoldering method factory in Qingdao, the excellent electrothermal activation method factory, and then the zinc chloride activation method factory were established. In 1958, Fujian, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Yantai, Northeast China, and Henan Zhengzhou and other places have built factories one after another. In 1966, Taiyuan opened a Slep activation method factory. Subsequently, hundreds of Slep furnace factories were opened in my country. In addition, there are many factories such as converters and cake furnaces. The total production capacity soared from 30 to 50 tons in 1951 to nearly 100,000 tons in the 1980 s. Production and application promote each other, and the application scope of activated carbon is rapidly expanded. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

7. From the original single general-purpose carbon to a variety of special carbons, such as water purification carbon, sugar carbon, monosodium glutamate carbon, oil carbon, gold carbon, carrier carbon, medicinal carbon, injection carbon, reagent carbon, etc., it shows that activated carbon is widely used in domestic The economy is booming, the application volume is increasing rapidly, and the export volume is increasing due to the expansion of production and the reduction of cost. The application of activated carbon in China has not only developed in the domestic market, but also entered the international market. Activated carbon is a very excellent adsorbent. It uses charcoal, bamboo charcoal, various fruit shells and high-quality coal as raw materials. It uses physical and chemical methods to crush, screen, activate catalyst, rinse, dry and dry the raw materials. It is processed and manufactured through a series of processes such as screening. It has the dual characteristics of physical adsorption and chemical adsorption, and can selectively adsorb various substances in the gas phase and liquid phase to achieve the purposes of decolorization and refining, disinfection, deodorization, decontamination and purification. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

8. Inspection standards can be in accordance with China's national standard GB, or in accordance with other national standards, such as: American ASTM, Japanese JIS, German DIN standards, etc. Activated carbon adsorptive adsorption properties are the primary properties of activated carbon. Activated carbon has microcrystals that resemble graphite grains but are arranged irregularly. During the activation process, pores of different shapes and sizes are produced between the crystallites. Activated carbon materials are divided into: fruit shells, coconut shells, apricot shells, peach shells, date shells, etc.; the pore volume of activated carbon price micropores is generally only 0.25-0.9 mL/g, the number of pores is about 1020/g, and the total micropore surface area is about It is 500-1500 m2/g, usually measured by the BET method, and is also said to be as high as 3500-5000m2/g. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---

9. Almost more than 95% of the surface area of activated carbon is in micropores. Therefore, except for some macromolecules that cannot enter, micropores are an important factor in determining the adsorption performance of activated carbon. The pore volume of mesopores is generally about 0.02-1.0 mL/g, and the surface area can reach up to several hundred square meters, which is generally only about 5% of the total activated carbon. Its function can adsorb steam, provide channels for adsorbents to enter the micropores, and directly adsorb larger molecules. ---www.allcarbon.com.cn---