Abstract:
Nipa palm shell (Nypa frutican Wurmb) is one part of nipa that potentially used as an
adsorbent, due to its content 45.6% of cellulose, 23.5% of hemicellulose and 19.4% of
lignin. The aim of this research was to determine the optimum condition of irradiation
time. The nipa palm shell was prepared through carbonization at 500°C and activated by
microwave irradiation at 600 W with various activation times (5, 10 and 15 minutes).
Carbon resulted from nipa palm shell was characterized by SNI No. 06-3730-1995 and
SEM. Optimum microwave activation time at 10 minutes produce 1.28% of water
content, 10.6% of ash content, 1003.3 mg/g of iod adsorption, 7.5686 mg/g of methylene
blue adsorption and 28.0624 m2/g of surface area. It can be concluded that microwave
activation increase the ability of iod adsorption, methylene blue adsorption and surface
area of activated carbon. Based on this work, activated process by microwave succed to
improve the ability of adsorbent.
