Activated carbon, also called activated charcoal,
activated coal or carbo activatus, is a form of
carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous and thus
to have a very large surface area available for adsorption or
chemical reactions.
The primary raw material used for activated carbon is any organic
material with a high carbon content (coal, wood, peat, coconut
shells). Granular activated carbon media is most
commonly produced by grinding the raw material, adding a suitable
binder to give it hardness, re-compacting and crushing to the
correct size. The carbon-based material is converted to activated
carbon by thermal decomposition in a furnace using a controlled
atmosphere and heat. The resultant product has an incredibly large
surface area per unit volume, and a network of submicroscopic pores
where adsorption takes place. The walls of the pores provide the
surface layer molecules essential for adsorption. Amazingly, one
pound of carbon (a quart container) provides a surface area
equivalent to six football fields.
