Characterization of Activated Carbon Prepared from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Using BET and FT-IR Techniques

Activated carbon has been known as an excellent adsorbent and is widely used due to its unique characteristics and large adsorption capacity. In this study, activated carbon produced from oil palm empty fruit bunch by steam activation was used. The activated carbons were analyzed using nitrogen adsorption isotherm as BET for specific surface area and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The results showed that the activated carbon at these optimum conditions; 765°C activation temperature and 77 min activation time, possesses a large apparent surface area (SBET = 720 m2/g), total pore volume (0.341cm3/g) with average pore size diameter of 18.99 Å. FT-IR results indicate that all the oil palm empty fruit bunch was successfully converted to carbon.