Porosity and surface characteristics of activated carbons produced from waste tyre rubber

Waste tyre rubber has proven to be a suitable precursor for the production of high quality activated carbons. The performance of these carbons in commercial applications such as water treatment or gas purification is highly dependent on their surface characteristics. This paper presents an in-depth investigation on how production conditions may affect the yield and characteristics of activated carbons produced from tyre rubber. For this purpose, three tyre rubbers of different particle sizes were consecutively pyrolysed and then activated in a steam atmosphere at 925degreesC using a laboratory-scale rotary furnace. Activation was conducted at different intervals over 80-640 min to achieve different degrees of carbon burn-off. The resulting carbons were analysed for their elemental composition, ash content and nitrogen gas adsorption characteristics. The BET and t-plot models were used to investigate various aspects of their porosity and surface area characteristics. SEM analyses were also conducted for visual examination of the carbon surface. Results show that pyrolytic chars, essentially mesoporous materials, developed a very narrow microporosity during the initial stages of the activation process (up to 15-25wt% burn-off). Further activation resulted in the progressive enlargement of the average micropore width and a gradual development of the mesoporous structure. Total micropore volumes and BET surface areas increased continuously with the degree of activation to reach values up to 0.498 cm(3)g(-1) and 1070 m(2)g(-1) respectively, while external surface areas developed more rapidly at degrees of activation above 45wt% burn-off. Results presented in this work also illustrate that carbons produced from powdered rubber developed a narrower and more extensive porosity, both in the micropore and mesopore range, than those produced from rubber of a larger particle size. (C) 2001 Society of Chemical Industry.