Preparation and Characterization of Activated Carbon from TamarindSeed Coats and its Application for Removal of Organic Pollutants

Abstract In the present study, activated carbon was prepared from tamarind seed shells by chemical activation using orthophosphoric acid as activating agent. The tamarind seed shells were impregnated with orthophosphoric acid in suitable ratio. This impregnated mass was carbonized in a modified muffle furnace at 500-9500 C. Various process parameters such as ratio of impregnation, temperature of carbonization, time period of carbonization were optimized. The prepared activated carbon was characterized for proximate & ultimate analysis, iodine number, N2-BET surface area, pore volume, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FT-IR spectroscopy. It has been observed from the results that the produced activated carbon has very high iodine number: 2010 mg/g, N2-BET surface area: 2447 m2/g and pore volume: 1.4003cm3/g. The SEM of activated carbon shows lot of cracks, crevices and different size pores. FT-IR spectra show the presence of various functional groups with predominant presence of phenolic -OH. Phenol adsorption and kinetic studies were carried out to evaluate the adsorption capacity of produced activated carbon in comparison with commercially available Filtrasorb 400(F-400) activated carbon. It has been observed that the produced activated carbon has better adsorption capacity than commercially available F-400 activated carbon.