SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF ACTIVATED CARBON FROM AGRICULTURAL WASTENETHALA LALITHA KUMARI, BHAVISETTI LAKSHMI, DANDABATTINA SUNEEL KUMAR AND DUVVURI SURYAKALAAbstract Activated carbons are synthesized from agricultural waste (cassava peels, coconut shell and rice straw) through chemical activation. The optimum activation temperature is around 500 oC, and chemical activation is through 6M KOH. Activated carbons are characterized by fourier transformation infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) and BET methods. The FTIR results showed that the agricultural waste is succeeding in becoming carbon. The XRD results confirm the existence of several phases of crystals like graphite around the peaks of 360 and 44 oC. The SEM result showed that the carbonization and activation processes created porosity and BET reports confirmed a large surface area for absorption and hence can be applied in several fields. |