Thermal Degradation and Particle Size Distribution Studies of Activated Carbon obtained from Coconut Shells

Abstract

Potassium hydroxide as a chemical activator successfully produced activated carbon based coconut shells. The coconut shells were collected from a market in Enugu State, Nigeria, sun-dried and ground into powder. The powdered sample was carbonized for 1 hour at 300°C and then activated with KOH. The thermal stability and particle size distributions of all the samples were then determined using thermogravimetric analysis and dynamic light scattering techniques. The TGA results show that the trend of activated carbon 1:0 < activated carbon 1:1 < activated carbon 1:2 corresponds to the increase in the proportion of KOH. The particle size distribution results of all the samples reveal polydispersity due to their PDI > 0.1 and as well show the presence of additional peaks at small sizes which may be due to additives or buffer components from the activating agents. Thus, both TGA and DLS findings reveal that the prepared activated carbon-based coconut shells are of good thermal stability and particle size distribution