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8341579 
Journal Article 
Preparation of activated carbon from coconut shell to remove aluminum and manganese in drinking water 
Ghazali, Z; Othaman, R; Abdullah, MP 
2012 
6 
8 
1307-1312 
English 
In the present work, activated carbons were produced from coconut shell by pyrolysis and physical activation in the presence of carbon dioxide at different activation temperature. The AC was characterized to determine the surface area, pore volume and the functional group on the surface and to study the effect of activation temperature on the properties of the AC. The prepared activated carbons were used to treat aluminium and manganese ions. The effect of activation temperature on BET surface area, total pore volume, micropore volume and surface functional group of activated carbon was evaluated systematically. Batch adsorption test had been carried out to determine the potential and the effectiveness of activated carbon in removal of aluminium and manganese at various pH and initial ion concentrations. The Langmuir adsorption isotherms were used in the study to verify the adsorption performance. It was found that increasing activation temperature was favourable to the formation of pores, BET surface area, total pore volume, and micropore volume. The yield of the activated carbon decreased but the surface area and pore volume increased with the activation temperature. At the activation temperature of 600 °C the surface functional groups that are important for the adsorption of ions could still be detected but at 800 °C, almost all of the surface functional groups could not be detected. Adsorption studies showed that adsorption performance increased with increasing pH and initial ion concentration. The adsorption capacity ofAl(III) and Mn(II) was greater on the AC-600 than AC-800. Adsorption capacity of Al(III) was higher (0.957 mg/g) than Mn(II) (0.857mg/g) onto AC-600 at pH of 8, which indicating that surface area and surface functional groups are important in determining the adsorption of the ions. The prepared activated carbons were effective in removing aluminium and manganese at lower concentration and pH as in drinking water. 
Activated carbon; Aluminium; Drinking water; Manganese