Comparative studies of three kinds of activated carbon reactivated by KOH

In this study, three kinds of activated carbon (wood-based, coal-based and petroleum coke-based) were selected as raw materials reactivated by KOH. The influence of porosity and precursor on the pore structure of resulted carbons was investigated. It was found that a similar microporosity was developed independent of the carbon's porosity after KOH reactivation. With the same value of burn-off, more micropore formatted in the wood-based carbon than that of coal-based carbon. The influence of KOH reactivation on the surface chemistry of activated carbons was also investigated. Copyright © 2011 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.