Activated carbons from MDF and PB wood composites – powder and monoliths forms

Abstract

Activated carbons (ACs) have been one of the most important materials used all over the world for many years and they are nowadays still one of the most relevant materials in the adsorption field. These adsorbent materials play a crucial role in our society because of its multiple applications in diverse areas such as food and beverage, health, gas separation and catalysis.. Aacademic and industrial communities have a particular, interest in the valorisation of different type of wastes, like lignocellulosic and syntethic polymers, to produce ACs, an added value material. The focus of this work is to produce ACs from medium density fibreboard (MDF) and particleboard (PB) engineered wood composites wastes by activation with CO2 and compare the structural and chemical characteristics of ACs produced in the form of powder and monolith,.All ACs samples and precursors were characterised by thermogravimetric analysis, lignocellulose content, nitrogen adsorption at 77K, FTIR, CHNS-O elemental analysis and point of zero charge. The information obtained allows us to have a better prediction for the potential applications for each of the forms of the final activated carbon (AC). With this work we expect to give a positive contribution to the discussion around the subject of the optimal size of precursor and, in particular, to the production of ACs of large size, namely monolith perforated AC structures.