Production of activated carbon from raw date palm fronds by ZnCI/sub 2/ activation

Annually a large volume of date palm frond waste is produced in Saudi Arabia as a result of the pruning of date palm trees. In this research activated carbon (AC) was prepared from date frond through a single step chemical activation method by ZnCl/sub 2/. The influence of ZnCl/sub 2/ concentrations (in the range of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 percentage) on the surface areas, pore volumes and carbon yield of ACs prepared from raw date frond (RDF) was studied with various analytical techniques. The RDF and ACs were characterized by Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), nitrogen adsorption Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) for surface areas and pore volumes, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) for surface morphology and elemental composition respectively. In the present study we have obtained the highest BET surface area 1581.67 m/sup 2/g/sup -1/ and total pore volume 0.629 cm/sup 3/ g/sup -1/ at 60 percentage ZnCl/sub 2/ concentration. The percentage yield of ACs increased with increase in ZnCl/sub 2/ concentration and reached to 39 percent at 60 percent ZnCl/sub 2/ concentration. The surface area obtained in the present study is highest amongst the results report in literature. (author)