Influence of Nitric Acid Concentration on Characteristics of Olive Stone Based Activated Carbon

In this work we investigated the effect of nitric acid concentration on the pore structure, surface chemistry and liquid phase adsorption of olive stone based activated carbon prepared by mixing process using phosphoric acid and steam as activating agents. Chemicals and textural characterization show that the increase of HNO3 concentration increases considerably the total acidic groups but decreases specific surface area and pore volume. The study of adsorption in aqueous solutions of two organics, phenol and methylene blue, on raw and oxidized activated carbon indicates that the treatment of mixed activated carbon with different concentrations of nitric acid improves the adsorbent capacity for methylene blue at HNO3 concentrations less or equal to 2 mol·L−1, while it has a negative effect on phenol adsorption.