Microporosity evaluation of active carbon from polish lignite by the use of ethanol

Abstract

Microporous activated carbons prepared by KOH chemical activation or steam activation from lignite were characterised by adsorption of N2 at 77 K and CO2 at 298 K. Subsequently, the adsorption of ethanol was carried out and complemented by adsorption of benzene and cyclohexane. The isotherm analysis included application of the αs method using ethanol reference data obtained here by also studying non-porous carbon blacks. The work confirmed that ethanol is an experimentally convenient adsorptive to use and leads to results in overall agreement with those obtained using other probe molecules. Of particular interest was the observation that ethanol can gain access to the whole microporosity even in the case of samples containing constricted micropore entrances.