Surface chemistry of activated carbons and its characterization

Department of Chemistry, City College of New York, City University of New York, New York,NY 10031, USA 

Activated carbons have been developed for a large number of highly specialized applications both as structural and functional materials. The underlying reason for this manifold of speoies is twofold its flexible coordination chemistry that allows an infinite possibility of 3-dimensional structures, and its ability to react with other heteroatoms such as hydrogen, boron, oxygen, and nitrogen both on its surfaces and within the structural Iramework. 

To date, carbon materials play a major role in nanosciences (fullerenes, nanotubes), electronic industry (diamond), metallurgy (graphitic carbon), electrochemistry, catalysis, adsorption, etc, The majority of these applications have arisen because of the existence of a superficial layer of chemically bonded elements. Thus, the surface functional groups determine the self-organization, the chemical stability and the reactivity in adsorptive and catalytic processes. 

Knowledge of the surface chemistry of carbon materials is of paramount importance as the pltysicochemical properties of carbons are stron y influenced by the presence of chemical species on the surface, and hence many of their applications are conditioned by their chemical characteri.stics. It is a well-known fact that even small amounts of heteroatoms can exert a significant influence on the physicochemical properties of the carbons, and hence, on the desired properties tor the intended application. Besides, these properties are known to change during storage of carbons. 

A great number of investigations have demonstrated the role of surface chemistry of carbons on the adsorption fi om solutions of aromatics [10-17], dyes [18], heavy metals [19-24], pharmaceuticals, etc [25-27]. In the field of catalysis, whether the carbon is used as a catalyst sipport or as catalyst itself, numerous works have focused on the role of surface 

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Ania CO, Bandosz TJ. Surface Chemistry of Activated Carbons and its Characterization In Activated Carbon Surfaces in Environmental Remediation, Bandosz, T J, Ed. Elsevier, Oxford, 2006.159-230. 

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