Fatima Musbah Abbas*, Abubaker Elsheikh Abdelrahman and Abdul Kariem Arof
Pre-carbonized date palm leaves (Phoenix dactylifera L.) with a particle size of 10 microns were used to prepare activated carbon pellets by KOH activation at 700°C. The grain powders were impregnated in KOH at a concentration of (0.0–0.35) moles, converted into grain pellets by applying 12 metric tons of pressure. The activated carbon produced was analyzed in terms of crystallite parameters, specific surface area, Young’s modulus (E) and spring length (SP) between two cubic granular volume microstructures. The crystallite parameters were analyzed in terms of (d002, Lc and La) for the graphitic crystallite. The results show that the La increased with increasing KOH concentration, while there is now a significant change to the Lc. The specific surface area of the AC product was found in the range of 1400–1684.5 m2/g, an empirical method proposed by Emmerich FG and Luengo CA has been used to estimate the E from its crystallite parameters. The E has systematically varied with KOH concentration, and 0.25 M is a higher E than the others. The estimated Young’s modulus from the empirical methods was in good agreement with that measured by ultrasonic techniques, indicating that the behavior of Young’s modulus is related to the crystallite parameters. The spring length (Sp) that fluctuated in the AC shows a critical length of 3.72, which is close to that of the crystallite parameter (d002) when it was activated by 0.25 M concentration. These results indicate that the crystallite parameters can play an essential role in the phonotypic and descriptive properties of the AC pellets, indicating the applicability of this method for estimating the mechanical properties of the carbon materials.
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