Abstract:
Activated carbon had successfully been made from shell of Terminalia Catappa L
with variation of carbonization times and KOH assisted microwaved activation.
The carbonization times were varied for 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours, and then
activated with mass of granular carbon and KOH with a variation of 2:1. The aim
of this research was to study the characteristics of shell of Terminalia Catappa L
as the activated carbon that were represented by yield, surface morphology,
cristalinity properties, surface area, and methylene blue adsorption of the activated
carbon. The activated carbon was decreased with increasing of carbonization time.
The results of X-ray diffraction indicated that all the activated carbon were in
semicrystalline, with the presence of narrow peaks showed by diffraction angles
of 2θ at 22.096o and 41.093o. The best of obtained surface area of activated
carbon resulted from the carbonization time of 3 hours was 302,775 m2/g. This
surface area generated the highest methylene blue with value of adsorption of
81.9 mg/g.
