Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680

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Applied Surface Science

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Preparation and characterization of activated carbon from reedy grass

leaves by chemical activation with H3 PO4
Jianzhong Xu a,∗ , Lingzhi Chen a,b , Hongqiang Qu a , Yunhong Jiao a , Jixing Xie a ,
Guangen Xing b
a
College of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, Hebei, China
b
Department of Applied Chemistry, Hengshui University, Hengshui 053000, Hebei, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Activated carbons were produced from reedy grass leaves by chemical activation with H3 PO4 in N2 atmo-
Received 24 May 2014 sphere and their characteristics were investigated. The effects of activation temperature and time were
Received in revised form 29 August 2014 examined. Adsorption capacity was demonstrated with BET and iodine number. Micropore volume and
Accepted 29 August 2014
pore size distribution of activated carbons were characterized by N2 adsorption isotherms. The surface
Available online 6 September 2014
area and iodine number of the activated carbons produced at 500 ◦ C for 2 h were 1474 m2 /g and 1128 mg/g,
respectively. Thermal decomposition of pure reedy grass leaves and H3 PO4 -impregnated reedy grass
Keywords:
leaves have been investigated with thermogravimetric/mass spectroscopy (TG–MS) technique. It was
Activated carbons
Reedy grass leaves
found that the temperature and intensity of maximum evolution of H2 O and CO2 of H3 PO4 -impregnated
H3 PO4 reedy grass leaves were lower than that of pure reedy grass leaves. This implies that H3 PO4 as an activat-
Surface chemistry ing reagent changed the thermal degradation of the reedy grass leaves, stabilized the cellulose structure,
leading to a subsequent change in the evolution of porosity. The results of X-ray photoelectron spec-
troscopy and Fourier-infrared spectroscopy analysis indicate that the produced activated carbons have
rich functional groups on surface.
© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction leaves to serve as a precursor for an efficient activated carbon. These

Activated carbons (AC) are materials containing large surface
area, well-developed porosity and rich surface groups. Therefore it
has been widely used for the separation of gases, the recovery of
solvents, the removal of organic pollutants from drinking water, as
a catalyst support, supercapacitors electrodes, gas storage, and so
on [1–4]. Nowadays, activated carbon can be produced from a large
number of abundant and low-cost materials such as agricultural
products [5]. In recent years, a lot of researches have been reported
on activated carbons from agricultural wastes, such as cherry stones
[6,7], vine shoots [8], spirit lees [9], coconut shells [10], bamboos
[11], corncob [12,13], candlenut shell [14], Palm shells [15], acorn
shell [16,17], pecan shells [18] and lotus stalks [19]. et al.
Reedy grass is a kind of plant growing abundantly in North-
ern China’s Hebei province. Reedy grass leaves have little economic
value, and incineration may cause environmental pollution prob-
lems. The aim of this work is to study the ability of reedy grass
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0312 5079482; fax: +86 0312 5079482.
E-mail address: xjz8112@sina.com (J. Xu).
applications would add value to reedy grass leaves, decrease the
waste disposal cost and environmental pollution, and provide an
alternative source of commercial carbons.
Activated carbons can be produced basically by two methods:
Physical or chemical activation. In the chemical activation method,
the dehydrating effect of used active agents inhibits the formation
of tar which helps to enhance the yield of porous carbon and to
decrease the activation temperature and activation time compared
with the physical activation method [20,21]. H3 PO4 acts as cata-
lyst on the one hand promoting bond cleavage reactions, on the
other hand facilitating crosslinking via cyclization, condensation,
and forming a layer of linkage such as phosphate and polyphos-
phate esters, which could protect the internal pore structure and
thus prevent the adsorbent from excessive burn-off [15,22]. In addi-
tion, H3 PO4 is eco-friendly as it is non-polluting, easy to recover by
simply dissolving the salts of H3 PO4 in water and can be recycled
back into the process. The phosphorus-containing group is the most
important one for the adsorption of heavy metal ions from acidic
solutions. Thus, carbons activated with H3 PO4 may be regarded
as prospective cation-exchangers for the removal of heavy metal
cations from water solutions [23]. In this study, activated carbons

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2014.08.178
0169-4332/© 2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.
 J. Xu et al. / Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680 675

Table 1
Effect of activation temperature, activation time on the BET surface area of activated carbons, yield and iodine numbers.

Sample Activation temperature (◦ C) Activation time (h) BET surface area (m2 /g) Micropore volume (cm3 /g) Iodine number (mg/g)

I 400 2 690 0.274 455

II 500 2 1474 0.560 1128
III 600 2 1223 0.541 1082
IV 700 2 1102 0.453 1079
V 800 2 1178 0.526 1104
VI 500 1 1320 0.556 1109
VII 500 3 1376 0.558 1117
VIII 500 4 1298 0.547 1100
VIIII 500 5 1107 0.456 1070

were prepared from reedy grass leaves by chemical activation with analyzer. The samples were placed in a platinum crucible. About
H3 PO4 as one of the effective procedure for preparation of highly 10 mg of each sample was heated under nitrogen flow rate of
porous carbons having rich surface chemistry. 100 mL min−1 and a heating rate of 5 ◦ C min−1 from 35 to 800 ◦ C.

2. Experimental 2.6. Fourier-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR)

2.1. Preparation of activated carbon Infrared transmittance measurements of the activated carbons
were carried out on a Varian 640 FT-IR spectrometer at room tem-
Reedy grass leaves from Hengshui Lake (HeBei province) were perature in the 4000–400 cm−1 wavenumber range. The pellet for
washed with hot distilled water to remove the impurities (dust and infrared studies was prepared by mixing a given sample with KBr
water soluble substances) and dried at 110 ◦ C for 24 h, and sieved to crystals and pressed into a pellet.
obtain particles size lower than 80 mesh prior to their activations.
10 g of sieved reedy grass leaves was mixed with H3 PO4 (60%) at
2.7. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
an impregnation ratio (grams of 100% H3 PO4 /gram of dried precur-
sor) of 0.88:1, and impregnation time for 4 h, The resulting activated
The XPS measurements were performed on PHI 5300 ESCA sys-
carbons were then chemically activated at 400, 500, 600, 700, and
tem (perkin-Elmer) using monochromated Al-Ka excitation source.
800 ◦ C for 1, 2, 3 and 4 h under nitrogen (N2 ) atmosphere (flow
XPS provided the elemental composition of carbons within 10 nm
rate = 100 mL min−1 ). The heating rate was 5 ◦ C min−1 . After activa-
of the sample’s surface.
tion, the carbonized sample was washed with hot distilled water in
a Soxhlet extractor until a neutral pH. Finally, the sample was dried
in a vacuum oven at 105 ◦ C for 10 h. 2.8. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)

2.2. Iodine test The surface physical morphology was identified by using scan-
ning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. SEM (TM3000, Japan)
The iodine number indicates the porosity of the activated carbon instrument with a 15 kV accelerating voltage was used to character-
and it is defined as the amount of iodine adsorbed by 1 g of carbon ize the morphology of activated carbons, which was dried overnight
at the mg level. at approximately 105 ◦ C under vacuum before SEM analysis.

2.3. N2 adsorption–desorption at −196 ◦ C 3. Results and discussion

Characterization of obtained activated carbons was determined
by N2 adsorption at −196 ◦ C with surface area and pore size ana-
lyzer (TriStar II 3020, Micromeritics). Before analysis, all of the
obtained ACs was evacuated under vacuum condition at 150 ◦ C over
night in order to clean all the pores. The BET surface area is calcu-
lated from the isotherms using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET)
equation [24]. The Dubinin–Radushkevich (DR) method is used to
calculate the micropore volume [25]. The pore size distribution is
as certained by non-local density functional theory (NLDFT) [26].
2.4. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis
The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) in
reflection mode (Cu K␣ radiation) on a Bruker D8 diffractometer.
Scans were recorded with a scanning rate of 0.01◦ /s, typically in
the angle range between 10◦ and 90◦ .
2.5. Thermogravimetric/mass spectroscopy (TG–MS)
Thermogravimetric analyzer (TG) coupled with mass spectrom-
eter (MS) system has been used to study the evolved gaseous
compounds generated during pyrolysis experiments. The pyroly-
sis tests were performed in a Netzsch Sta 449C thermogravimetric
3.1. Effect of activating temperature and activating time
Activating temperature plays an important role in the pyrolysis
of the precursors, so it is a key parameter for the surface area and
the micropore volume of the AC. The effects of activating tempera-
ture on the BET surface area, micropore volumes, iodine number of
the ACs are shown in Table 1. BET surface areas, micropore volume
and iodine number gradually increased at first and then decreased
with the increase of activating temperature. These facts indicate
that the development of microporosity below 500 ◦ C involves prin-
cipally the creation of new micropores (ultramicropores), whereas
micropore widening prevails at higher temperatures. It may be
connected with the fact that phosphorus species present in the
impregnated reedy grass leaves under such heating conditions tend
to boil and this causes a structural expansion in the product that
is being carbonized. The BET surface area, micropore volume and
iodine number at 500 ◦ C is found to be appropriate to reach the
maximum of 1474 m2 /g, 0.560 cm3 /g, and 1128 mg/g respectively.
From the data in Table 1, it is obvious that the activation time is
essential to the activated carbon. Increasing the activation duration
from 1–2 h leads to the increasing of BET surface area, micropore
volume and iodine number. However, the increase of the activation
duration from 2–5 h results in a lower BET, micropore volume and
676 J. Xu et al. / Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680

Table 2
Comparison of activated carbons of present work with other literature data under optimum conditions.

Raw material Activation Activation Chemical treatment BET Surface Iodine number References
temperature (◦ C) time (h) area (m2 /g) (mg/g)

Corncob 800 2 KOH 1600 665 [12]

Corncob 400 1 H3 PO4 2081 711 [13]
Palm shells 420 0.5 H3 PO4 1109 1035 [15]
Acorn shell 600 0.5 ZnCl2 1289 1209 [16]
Lotus stalks 450 1 Trimethyl phosphate 644 – [19]
Lotus stalks 450 1 H3 PO4 1179 – [19]
Biomass (Elaeagnus angustifolia seeds) 240 3 ZnCl2 697 1009 [20]
Reedy grass leaves 500 2 H3 PO4 1474 1128 This study

iodine number. It may be that longer duration of activation time
caused some of the pores to enlarge or even collapse.
Comparison of activated carbons of present work with other
literature data under optimum conditions is presented in Table 2.
Fig. 1 shows the Pore size distribution (PSDs) obtained by the
NLDFT method for activated carbon prepared from reedy grass
leaves at the activation temperature of 500 ◦ C under N2 atmosphere
for 2 h of duration. The curve exhibits systematically a minimum
around 1 nm, which is well known to be an artifact introduced by
modeling assumptions [27]. The PSDs exhibit two maxima at 0.6
and 1.1 nm, as well as another small shoulder at 2–4 nm, where
the pore sizes become predominantly micro and mesoporous. The
pore size distribution shows a twin peak in the micropore region,
contributing nearly to 50% of total pore volume.
3.2. XRD analysis
The activated carbons produced from reedy grass leaves at
activation temperature of 500 ◦ C, under N2 atmosphere for 2 h of
duration can be crystallographically characterized by means of X-
ray diffraction (Fig. 2). Overall two broad peaks around 26◦ and 44◦
related to (0 0 2) and (1 0) Bragg reflections are noted signifying the
amorphous nature of activated carbons [28]. The diffraction pattern
is characterized by very broad (0 0 2) lines due to the small number
of stacked layers. Unsymmetrical (1 0) lines due to random tur-
bostratic stacking of layers. In addition, in the case of sample, which
exhibits certain sharp peaks, the existence of those sharp peaks may
be attributed to the existence of residual ash in the carbon.
material was about 72.0% at 200–400 ◦ C in which carbonisation
process begins and mainly hemicellulose and cellulose frac-
tions decompose. Finally, consolidation of the char structure at
400–800 ◦ C resulted in a small weight loss. The mass loss at 800 ◦ C is
close to 80%, and confirms that the pyrolysis of the precursor with-
out impregnation is not interesting in term of carbon production
yield. By contrast, the plot of mass loss of the impregnated reedy
grass leaves is shifted to higher temperatures.
This TGA curve of H3 PO4 -impregnated reedy grass leaves shows
an important mass loss up to 300 ◦ C, then a slower and progres-
sive mass loss in the range 300–450 ◦ C and a third one in the
range 450–650 ◦ C. During the first stage, only a slight weight loss
was observed which was mainly due to the evaporation of water.
Water comes from the H3 PO4 solution, the moisture in samples
and from reactions of samples and H3 PO4 at low temperature [29].
Volatile components and light gases such as CO and CO2 may
also be released at this stage for the weight loss of the sample is
higher than the moisture content of the raw reedy grass. During

3.3. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

Fig. 3 shows the results from TGA carried out on pure reedy grass
leaves and H3 PO4 -impregnated reedy grass leaves. The decomposi-
tion of reedy grass leaves takes place in three stages. The first stage Fig. 2. X-ray diffraction pattern of produced activated carbon from reedy grass
that obtained at 35–200 ◦ C indicates the loss of adsorbed water leaves (the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
was about 2.01%. In the second stage, sharp weight loss of the raw

Fig. 1. Pore size distribution of produced activated carbon from reedy grass leaves Fig. 3. TG analysis curves of pure reedy grass leaves (A) and H3 PO4 -impregnated
(the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)). (H3 PO4 -to-precursor ratio 0.88:1) reedy grass leaves (B).
 J. Xu et al. / Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680
Fig. 4. Ion current curves of m/z = 18 during thermal degradation of pure reedy grass
leaves (A) and H3 PO4 -impregnated (H3 PO4 -to-precursor ratio 0.88:1) reedy grass
leaves (B).
the second stage corresponding to the formation of micropores
and mesopores by reaction of the H3 PO4 with biopolymer (lignin,
hemicellulose, and cellulose) to form crosslinked biopolymer frag-
ments connected with phosphate and polyphosphate bridges
(expansion of the materials). The third mass loss may be assigned
to the ultimate oxidation of the carbon material after reaction with
H3 PO4 , the third stage due to the decomposition of the phosphate
bridges (accompanied by a volumic contraction of the material and
a decrease of the microporous volume) [30]. The TGA plot of the
impregnated material shows that activation temperature at 500 ◦ C
corresponds to a 39.6% mass burn off which can be attributed essen-
tially to the reedy grass leaves mass loss due to the activation
reaction with H3 PO4 . This means that less than 76.4% of the reedy
grass leaves precursor is burn off by the activation reaction.
3.4. Evolved gas analysis with TG–MS
MS coupled with TG system has been used to study volatile
species of thermal decomposition of pure reedy grass leaves and
H3 PO4 -impregnated reedy grass leaves. The following m/z ratio
(mass-to-charge ratio) analyses were obtained from TG–MS to
better understand the decomposition mechanisms of reedy grass
leaves. Figs. 4–6 present the evolution curves of H2 O (m/z = 18),
CO2 (m/z = 44) and C3 H3 O+ (m/z = 55) during pyrolysis of the sam-
ples. For the evolution curve of H2 O, the lowest temperature (below
100 ◦ C) peak produced comes from the moisture in the samples.
As can be seen from Figs. 4–5, H2 O and CO2 are formed from the
pyrolyzing processes of all samples, but the temperatures at which
the evolution peaks reach their values are different. For pure reedy
grass leaves, the temperatures of maximum evolution of H2 O and
CO2 are 345 ◦ C and 340 ◦ C, respectively. With the incorporation of
Fig. 5. Ion current curves of m/z = 44 during thermal degradation of pure reedy grass
leaves (A) and H3 PO4 -impregnated (H3 PO4 -to-precursor ratio 0.88:1) reedy grass
leaves (B).
677
Fig. 6. Ion current curves of m/z = 55 during thermal degradation of pure reedy grass
leaves (A) and H3 PO4 -impregnated (H3 PO4 -to-precursor ratio 0.88:1) reedy grass
leaves (B).
H3 PO4 , The temperature of maximum evolution of H2 O and CO2
decreases to 142 ◦ C and 148 ◦ C. The low temperature evolution of
CO2 was produced by esters and carboxylic acid groups in the reedy
grass leaves (mostly present in hemicellulose and lignin). It appears
that H3 PO4 first attacks hemicellulose and lignin. Effects of acid
attack are to hydrolyze glycosidic linkages in the hemicellulose and
cellulose and to cleave arylether bonds in the lignin. Further, the
acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of ether linkages in lignin leads to the
formation of ketones. And H3 PO4 can be combined with organic
species to form phosphate and polyphosphate bridges that connect
and cross-link biopolymer fragments [31].
Analyses of evolved gases show that the effect of H3 PO4 is to
promote dehydration of reedy grass leaves at low temperature.
Thus, the H3 PO4 -impregnated reedy grass leaves decompose early
in comparison with pure reedy grass leaves.
The ion m/z = 55 can be attributed to the fragment C3 H3 O+
derived from small molecule aldehydes. In Fig. 6, the maxima inten-
sities of fragment C3 H3 O+ released from pure reedy grass leaves
was exhibited at around 286 ◦ C, With the incorporation of H3 PO4 ,
The maxima intensities of fragment C3 H3 O+ increases to 410 ◦ C.
That can be seen, as the temperature is increased, a contraction
of the structure of activated carbon was caused by the scission
of P O C bonds. The reduction in cross-link density allows the
growth and alignment of polyaromatic clusters, producing a more
densely packed structure with some reduction in porosity. The
above phenomena can be explained that H3 PO4 is a dehydrat-
ing compound, which will increase the yield but will also change
the thermal degradation of the precursor, leading to a subsequent
change in the evolution of porosity.
Interestingly, for most of gas products, their evolution intensity
from pure reedy grass leaves is higher than that from H3 PO4 -
impregnated reedy grass leaves, that may be explained reaction
Fig. 7. FTIR spectra of produced activated carbon from reedy grass leaves (the acti-
vation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
678 J. Xu et al. / Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680
Fig. 8. XPS spectra of the C1s region for produced activated carbon from reedy grass
leaves (the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
Fig. 9. XPS spectra of the O1s region for produced activated carbon from reedy grass
leaves (the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
with H3 PO4 can stabilizes the cellulose structure by inhibiting the
formation of levo-glucosan which otherwise offers a route to the
substantial degradation of cellulose through its decomposition to
volatile products. That can be clearly seen that the formation of
most of gas products is well accompanied by the sharp decompo-
sition of samples shown in the TG curves.
3.5. Functional groups of reedy grass leave activated carbon
The FT-IR spectra of reedy grass leaves activated carbon pre-
pared based on the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation
time (2 h) are shown in Fig. 7. The broad absorption band at
3600–3200 cm−1 with a maximum at about 3420 cm−1 is charac-
teristic of the stretching vibration of hydrogen-bonded hydroxyl
Fig. 11. (a–c) Scanning electron micrographs of produced activated carbon from reedy grass leaves (the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
Fig. 10. XPS spectra of the P2p region for produced activated carbon from reedy
grass leaves (the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h)).
groups from carboxyls, phenols or alcohols, and water adsorbed
in the activated carbons. The band at 2800–3000 cm−1 indicates
the presence of an aliphatic CH stretching. The spectra shows a
pronounced band at 1630 cm−1 , that can be assigned to the C C
stretching vibration in the structure of the activated carbon.
The band at 1000–1300 cm−1 is usually found with oxidized
carbons and has been assigned to C O stretching in acids, alco-
hols, phenols, ethers, and/or esters groups [30]. Nevertheless, it is
also characteristic of phosphorus and phosphocarbonaceous com-
pounds present in H3 PO4 activated carbons. The peak at 1163 cm−1
can be assigned to the stretching mode of hydrogen-bonded
P OOH groups from phosphates or polyphosphates, to the O C
stretching vibration in the P O C (aromatic) linkage. The band at
1080–1065 cm−1 could be due to P+ O− in acid phosphate esters
and to the symmetrical vibration in polyphosphate chain P O P
[32]. The FT-IR spectroscopy result indicates that the produced
carbons are rich in surface functional groups.
Figs. 8–10 show the XPS analysis results for the reedy grass
leaves activated carbon prepared based on the activation tem-
perature (500 ◦ C) and activation time (2 h). XPS spectra of C1s
excitation showed complicated envelope that indicated several
carbon species at the carbons’ surface (Fig. 8). The characteristic
bands for carbon occurring in: graphite (284.2–284.9 eV), carbon
species in alcohol, phenols, ether groups, and/or C O P linkage
(285.4–286.3 eV), carbon in carbonyl groups (287.2–287.9 eV), car-
boxylic groups or esters (288.7–289.3 eV) can be found [33]. The
contribution of (285.8 eV) peak is higher than (287.9 eV) peak, so
there is a significant presence of C O P and/or C O C bonds.
Fig. 9 shows the XPS spectra of O1s excitation. The O1s
spectra of activated carbon was fitted to four peaks accord-
ing to the literatures [34], which include oxygen in carbonylic
groups (C O) and non-bridging oxygen in the phosphate group
 J. Xu et al. / Applied Surface Science 320 (2014) 674–680
(P O) (531.2–531.6 eV), oxygen in phenolic, lactonein and C O P
groups (532.7–533.0 eV), noncarbonyl oxygen in carboxylic groups
(533.8–534.4 eV) and oxygen in H2 O (535.5–536.3 eV) [33]. In the
O1s spectrum it can be seen a small contribution of OH groups.
The P2p peak was deconvoluted into three different com-
ponents (Fig. 10). Peak (131.9–132.7 eV) was attributed to the
formation of phosphates and polyphosphates (likely pyrophos-
phates). Peak (133.3–134.9 eV) comes from metaphosphates [35].
Peak (129.6 eV) comes from elemental phosphorus. It may appear
that the existence of elemental phosphorus in carbons chemically
activated with H3 PO4 . The XPS analysis result indicates that the
produced carbons are rich in surface functional groups, supporting
FT-IR spectra the findings, and as observed by TG–MS.
3.6. Textural characterization by SEM
SEM images of the reedy grass leaves activated carbon prepared
based on the activation temperature (500 ◦ C) and activation time
(2 h) are shown in Fig. 11(a–c), It can be seen from the micrographs
(Fig. 11a) that the activated carbons have relatively heterogeneous
and highly porous surface. Fig. 11b shows the structure of acti-
vated carbon was bight fibers features on the surface. Fibers had
been contacted each other and made network structures. When
reedy grass leaves were subjected to activation, most of the organic
volatiles were evolved, leaving behind the ruptured surface of acti-
vated carbon with a small number of pores [36]. Fig. 11c shows the
external surface of the AC was slightly corrugated and abundant
pores, fairly uniformly distributed were gradually formed during
activation. These pores are the exterior pores that serve as the main
channels that connect to the micropores on the inner surface of the
carbon. This observation is supported by the BET surface area and
Pore size distribution of the activated carbon.
4. Conclusions
In the present study, activated carbons were produced from
reedy grass leaves by chemical activation with H3 PO4 in N2 atmo-
sphere. With the increase of activation temperature and activation
time, BET surface areas, iodine number, and micropore volume
of produced activated carbon were gradually increased at first
and then decreased. The optimal conditions for the activation of
reedy grass leaves AC are estimated to be activation temperature of
500 ◦ C, activation time of 2 h, giving the BET surface area and iodine
number of 1474 m2 /g and 1128 mg/g respectively. The micropore
volume of obtained activated carbon has 0.560 cm3 /g.
The various characterization methods used in this study show
that H3 PO4 acts as an activating reagents, which will increase the
yield but will also change the thermal degradation of the precur-
sor, leading to a subsequent change in the evolution of porosity.
And the reedy grass leaves activated carbons have a large num-
ber of oxygen- and phosphorus-containing surface groups. The
amorphous structure of reedy grass leaves activated carbons were
bight fibers features on the surface and the external surface of the
activated carbons was slightly corrugated with abundant pores.
Therefore, reedy grass leaves might be a potential raw precursor
for preparation of high quality activated carbon.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (21276059), Program of Hebei Sci-
ence and Technology Commission (13211402D), Natural Science
Foundation of Hebei Province (B2014201101).
679
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