[atta001]

Dear All,

I am working on a thesis dealing with the desalination and purification of waste water. During the process a need has arised for the sysnthesis of Activated Charcoal. I request you to kindly send me the paper(s) dealing with the preparation process or direct me to such a place where there is sufficient information so that I am able to synthesize Activated Charcoal in my lab. I will be grateful.

Regards,

Atta.

[hmx9123]

You can just buy it from a chemical supplier.  The idea behind making activated charcoal is to leave a high surface area empty of things adsorbed onto it so it can adsorb materials.  You have to take activated charcoal that has been sitting around for a while and reactivate it, which IIRC, is a procedure done by dumping the charcoal out on a baking sheet and heating it up to 220 C for a while.  Don't remember the exact procedure.  You should be able to find this very easily in a standard lab practices book or even on Google for that matter.

[Mitch]

You basically have to heat the charcoal so that any residue organics turns into more charcoal.

[Donaldson Tan]

does leaving charcoal in an oven of 250C for over 45min makes it activated carbon?