Upscaling the Chemical Vapor Infiltration Process of Activated Carbon with TMS

Activated carbons are important adsorbents covering a broad range of applications from gas to air purification. In order to improve their mechanical stability and their resistance against oxidation they are infiltrated here with an inert material, SiC or SiO2. For this process the chemical vapor infiltration technique with tetramethylsilane as precursor is used. The process is designed for the infiltration of larger quantities (up to 50 g) which allows further analysis of the materials produced: in comparison to the uncoated activated carbon the novel adsorbent have an increased breaking strength and the BET-surface areas and pore volumes are on high levels. The possibility of using the novel material for solvent adsorption is demonstrated for acetone.