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How to Make Activated Charcoal Activated charcoal can be made at home by chemical activation process. The requirements for makingactivated charcoal are coconut shells, calcium chloride or zinc chloride solution, burning sink, oven and blender.Read on to know how activated charcoal is made..

Activated charcoal is a form of carbonwith an increased surface area for adsorption. It is also referred to asactivated carbon, active charcoal or attimes, activated coal. In order toproduce activated charcoal, a carbonsource is treated under certainconditions to increase its surface areaand / or number of pores. On anaverage, the estimated surface area for a gram of activated charcoal is about500 square meter.

The adsorbing characteristic of activated charcoal is used for manypurposes. When a compound passes near activated charcoal, the latter adsorbs the substance bychemical attraction. I t is considered as the most effective poison antidote t ill date. I f administeredearly, activated charcoal can adsorb about 60 - 70 percent of the ingested poison. Due to its various

benefits , activated charcoal is produced on a large scale. Commercially, it is available in the form of dry powder, liquids and tablets.

How to Make Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal can be made at home by chemical activation procedure, provided you have therequired materials and equipments. Though any organic material can be used as precursor or rawmaterial for producing activated charcoal, you should select a non toxic carbon source with absorbentproperties. You can make use of coconut shells or hardwood. Let's discuss in brief how to makeactivated charcoal using coconut shells as the raw material.

First of all, keep all the required materials ready for making activated charcoal; you need coconutshells (without meat), burning sink, oven, 25 percent concentrated solution of calcium chloride(CaCl2) or zinc chloride (ZnCl2), sterilized water, plastic pail, draining tray, zipper bags and blender.Before starting the procedure, you can strip off coconut shells, wash thoroughly with clean water andallow them to dry completely. If drying is not done properly, they may be difficult to burn.

Add the dried coconut shells in the burning sink by adjusting the temperature to about 600 - 900degrees Fahrenheit. Maintain the recommended temperature range and burn continuously for about 4 hours or until the coconut shells turn into ash. For safe handling, you can leave the ash until it coolsdown. After the ash has cooled down, carefully take out the ash from the sink and transfer it into aclean plastic pail. Then, pour the 25 percent concentrated solution of calcium chloride or zinc chlorideinto the plastic pail.

The amount of calcium chloride or zinc chloride solution should be such that the ash is soakedcompletely into the solution. Cover the pail with a lid and leave for 20 - 24 hours. During this process,the chemicals are impregnated into the ash, after which further treatment will transform the ash intoactivated charcoal. The next step is removing the charcoal from the chemical solution and transferringit into a draining tray. Allow solution to drain for about 1 hour.

For removal of any trace chemicals from the charcoal, you can wash and rinse repeatedly withsterilized water. Thorough washing is essential in order to get rid of the chemical solution, which isone of the most common problems in the making of activated charcoal by chemical activationprocedure. After washing, keep the charcoal in the tray for draining water. Following this, t ransfer thecharcoal into an oven, setting the temperature to about 215 - 230 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for about 3 hours.

After baking, remove the activated charcoal from the oven and crush it with the help of a blender.You can also grind the activated charcoal into powder form by using a hammer. For future use, storethe powdered activated charcoal into zipper bags or airtight containers. This way you can makeactivated charcoal on your own.

By Ningthoujam Sandhyarani

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